Imprisoned by the Empire
by Slurpee Monster
Summary: In a few brief moments, the Resisty was no more. The only one to survive the attack was Lard Nar. Imprisoned on the Massive as a slave under Tallest Purple, he tries to come to terms with what happened to him and his crew.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

Here we go... this is the longest fanfic I have written so far. I'll try to upload quicker than I have in the past, but I won't make an updating schedule because I'll be unlikely to follow it. If you are looking for romance or any sort of happy warm fuzzy feelings, this is not the right fic for you. If you're looking instead for hurt/comfort, a boat load of angst, a depressing atmosphere with some half-hearted attempts at light humor and a slow moving plot, you've come to the right place.

**Warning:** No romance. There will be angst, cursing, multiple character deaths, and torture. If you still want to read this, be my guest. Just remember there isn't going to be any romance. Lard Nar and Purple are the main characters. I don't write slash.

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><p><strong>Pain<strong>

Screams echoed down the hallway. Begging and pleading before the twisting agony of the torture devices. There was a sickening snap of a bone being driven out of place. Another scream. Then all was quiet.

He squinted. The bright room was only starting to come into focus. There was pain like hot embers shooting up his leg, and he groaned in discomfort. Grinding his teeth, he tried to move. He exhaled sharply, realizing his leg wasn't cooperating and any kind of movement only made it hurt worse.

The floor he was lying on was cold; the chill bit into him; he shuddered.

"It's awake," someone sneered.

Something wet was dripping down his face. He reached to brush it away and was stunned when he realized it was his blood. A fresh wave of pain struck him, and he squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted to return to the darkness where everything was numb.

"Go inform the Tallests."

There were two of them. Lard Nar could see their shadows. It took him a moment to understand their words. The Tallests… some of his memories flooded back to him. The Massive had shot down his ship which had crashed on some god-forsaken planet. He had been able to make it out of the wreckage, but there were blazing fires all around him and thick smoke that stung his eyes and made it hard to breath.

He must have woken once or twice. He remembered hearing something frightening, although his mind had mostly blocked it out.

Where was his crew? He wondered, forcing himself into a sitting position. His head spun, and he began to feel a bit sick. He was frightened and alone, but he wasn't about to show any weakness to his enemies.. not if he could help it.

His mind raced as he took in the colours of the walls. He was definitely on board the Massive. White energy circulating from the ceiling down to the floor kept him contained in a small corner of the room. He knew if he touched it he would receive a jolt strong enough to paralyse his body. He had worked with such high density energy before.

"You lost the bet," a familiar voice came from the corridor.

He watched quietly while the guard saluted his superiors as they entered the room.

"Yeah yeah, I'll pay you when we get back to Irk," an equally unwelcome voice stated.

Lard Nar forced himself to glare up at his captors. They came and stood outside of his holding cell, leering down at him with big grins on their faces.

"You lost Vortian," the Tallest wearing red spoke. He was also the one who supposedly lost the bet. "I'm sure you remember what our laws have to say about that."

According to Irken rules of war he was now their prisoner. Of course he remembered; his whole planet had fallen under that stupid rule. Grimacing in pain, he slowly managed to rise to his feet, favouring his injured leg. His throat felt scratchy from all the smoke he inhaled after the crash. He couldn't speak above a whisper.

"You won't… succeed…" Lard Nar spoke as loud as he could, which wasn't very loud at all. Even if just one of his crew escaped, the resistance had a chance of surviving.

They stared at him.

"Wow. He can stand," the purple one commented.

"I don't think he realizes the trouble he's in," the other Tallest grumbled, turning his attention to the guard. "You have permission to torture him as much as you want."

The red one turned away, already bored with their latest captive. Lard Nar wouldn't know this, but most of his crew had died in the crash, and the other survivors besides himself had already met with their unfortunate ends.

Purple watched his partner leave. He lowered his antennae slightly when he realized the guard was waiting eagerly to carry out the other Tallest's orders. "Hm well… I think we will succeed, seeing that your in no shape to fight us, and your little resistance thing was the only one trying to stop the armada."

"There will be more…" Lard Nar murmured teetering slightly. "More resistance… the more you two destroy…" His vision started to blur. Already he could feel his legs starting to buckle in protest.

Fainting in front of Irk's leaders wasn't something he wanted to do, but he did… He didn't expect to ever wake up again.

His head was swimming with the last tattered shreds of a dream.

Something cold and heavy was around his neck. He touched it; his eyes widening with the realization that it was a collar of some sort.

Blasted luck. They were going to keep him as a slave rather than kill him. He cursed under his breath and made a feeble attempt to remove the collar. It didn't budge.

Then he noticed the bandages on his arms; they had been burned quite badly, but the pain in his leg had taken most of his attention away from his other injuries. There were more bandages wrapped around his head. He felt them carefully before tugging at the ends to remove them.

At least he was still wearing his uniform, or what was left of it anyway... he hated even picturing himself in the traditional Irken garb. He'd gladly take a shredded ash stained outfit over ugly pink stripes.

"Leave 'em on," the purple eyed Tallest yawned. He had been sitting at the desk beside the bed.

The bed…? Lard Nar suddenly realized he wasn't in his holding cell anymore.

"If you take those off you'll get blood on everything, and it'll be gross."

"What are you doing..?" Lard Nar asked in a hoarse whisper.

The Tallest smirked. "Don't freak out, but I kind of claimed you."

"You what…?" all of the colour drained from his face. He swallowed down his revulsion and tried to prop himself up the best he could. His arms trembled, and a shiver ran down his spine. This couldn't be happening…

"It's not all bad," the Tallest told him. "No one can kill you without my permission. It's almost like having diplomatic immunity."

"That's nothing like having diplomatic immunity…" Lard Nar grumbled. He was experiencing his greatest fear; he had become Irken property. His life no longer belonged to him. The thought of it made him feel queasy, and he wondered if there might not be a way to end it all right here… but he couldn't. There was still hope so long as he remained alive.

He had to cling to this hope no matter how bleak his situation was.

Purple chuckled. "I guess not, but it was either this or a slow painful death under that sadistic guard Red seems to like." He grabbed a can of soda off his desk and held it out to Lard Nar. The Vortian stared at it in disbelief.

"I won't do this for just anyone," Purple told him. "The other aliens that survived the crash were either shot on sight or tortured to death."

Lard Nar ground his teeth and turned away. He didn't want to remember what happened during his bleary state of semi-consciousness after the crash.

"They were your inferiors," Purple remarked, puzzled by the Vortian's reaction. He had just thrown a shorter Irken out the airlock that morning. Followers were so common they could be used as extra ammunition.

Of course, he didn't really hurt his people that often. Other aliens were a whole different matter entirely though.

"They weren't drones Irken… they chose to follow me…"

Purple's antennae twitched. "Irken? I'm not just an Irken. I'm the Tallest." he sat up straighter. "And they were aliens to both you and me. Who cares if they died?"

Lard Nar gave the Tallest a strange look. "I am never calling you that… so long as there is… breath in my body… and alien or not... they were still my... my crew..." all of this talking was beginning to make him feel sick again. He closed his eyes and breathed a sigh.

Why would the Tallest want to save him? It was all very confusing…

Instead of being offended, Purple simply shrugged his shoulders and placed the can on the desk. "I didn't really expect you to call my by my title," he admitted. "You seem to be pretty stubborn."

The door slid open, and Purple turned to see a small frightened technician stepping into the room. "Sir… Tallest Red is uh… he is wondering where you went…"

Purple rolled his eyes. "Honestly?" he questioned, but he stood up and walked towards the hallway. "I'll be back later. Don't touch my stuff."

Lard Nar relaxed a bit, relieved the Tallest was no longer in the room. He could hardly believe he was still alive and not chained to something. At the very least, he should have been confined.

He opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling.

When he tried to move, he recognized there would be no chance of him escaping, and this was probably why they hadn't physically restrained him at all. Every part of his body felt sore, but the worse pain came from his broken leg. He wondered if he would ever be able to walk without a limp. His arms and fingers were burned so badly, he thought he might not be able to grip anything with his hands.

He tried, but his fingers trembled and a shooting pain ran up his arms. He bit his tongue and sucked in a breath. Not good… something wasn't working properly.

Cursing under his breath, he pushed himself to sit. It hurt, but he needed to make sure he could still move. Fighting back his dizziness, he carefully edged closer to the side of the bed. A dark veil seemed to be closing in around him. He was seeing spots.

Walking; he could still do that right…? His chest constricted. No… he probably couldn't, but he had stood up not long ago. If he could stand, why couldn't he walk?

He was tired, so he lay back down, not willing to risk hurting himself anymore. He needed to heal quickly so he could find a way off the Massive.

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><p><strong>DisclaimerNotes:** I don't own any of the Invader Zim characters, the show, Nicktoons, nothing.

I'm finally back after a long break. You see, my computer caught a virus and I lost all of the fanfic stories I'd been working on. This one was started after the 'great disaster' and because I've almost completed it, I thought I should get it uploaded before something terrible happens again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes:** I'll post chapters whenever I feel like it. That's the plan. You can review if you want to, but I won't get offended if you don't. This fic takes place sometime after the canceled Trial episode. I don't own anything.**  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Mercy<strong>

Purple came back a few times to check on him. The Tallest offered him some snacks and even showed him some of their plans for conquering Meekrob and Boodie-nen. The plans weren't the greatest, but they had a strong armada to fall back on, so it didn't really matter.

"And you never think of the families you're enslaving?" Lard Nar questioned the Tallest moodily.

"Nope," Purple answered. "Well… unless we want to use them for something."

"Like…?" Lard Nar asked with a bit of hesitation.

"Fights to the death, death mazes, facing off with deadly creatures until they die," Purple listed. "Sometimes we keep a few as slaves on the Massive, but they usually don't last long." He grabbed a handful of chips from the bag he was holding. "Yup… it's better for them if we don't think about them."

"That's just…" Lard Nar wasn't sure which word he should use to describe his revulsion.

He suddenly realized that Purple had used 'them' and 'they' rather than 'you' and 'you guys.' "Why didn't I hear about this?" He had started the Resistance to end the oppression of the Irken Empire, yet he hadn't really thought about the gravity of the situation. Now it was too late… his crew had been massacred by Irk's tyrants, and any survivor was going to be scared out of his or her skull.

After Vort had been conquered, all of the inhabitants had been imprisoned, but no one other than the soldiers who fought against the Armada had died after the initial conquest. Lard Nar thought he was dealing with oppression and slavery… but this was much worse than that.

Didn't his crew know of these things? Why didn't they tell him...?

Purple reached for his bag of chips resting on the desk. "That's a funny story actually. You see, before Vort was conquered I looked into the status of former allying planets. It turns out what happens to them after a successful conquest is different, but only under certain conditions. For example, the Tallest has to speak for the planet, and pretty much back up the inhabitants. Also, the species of alien has to be seen as useful to the Empire, but that was easy since a lot of Irken technology has been enhanced by Vortian technology, or so I've been told anyway."

Lard Nar ground his teeth as he carefully sat up. A stab of pain ran up one of his arms, causing him to wince. "Why would you do that…?" he asked. "And how is it funny?"

"Red was totally ticked off. He's ticked off now too, because I claimed you, but he was more ticked off back then, and it was funny," Purple replied. "Why? Well… that's a good question. Former Tallest Miyuki liked you guys. I'll just leave it at that."

What did Miyuki have to do with anything? Lard Nar glared at the Tallest for a moment, but Purple didn't pay any attention to the Vortian's apparent hostility.

"Here, this is all the information I got on the invasion of Vort if you want to see it," Purple told him. He used his free hand to pass a few digital documents to the Vortian. "I thought you might be curious." Purple stood up. The chip bag crackled a bit; it was almost empty. "I guess I should go pretend to be interested in whatever is going on. If I stay held up in my room too long, Red might come looking for me."

"I always thought you were an idiot…" Lard Nar admitted as his eyes scrolled along the statistics and reports in his hands. It hurt to bend his wrists, and his fingers still trembled a bit, but the pain was becoming more bearable.

Purple chuckled. "That was hardly any work. I just found it and gave it to you. The research to stop the massacre on your planet was the hard stuff. I really hate reading."

Bang bang bang

"Purple?"

"Ah jeez…" Purple's antennae fell. "I knew he'd come looking for me."

"You guys are hardly ever a part," Lard Nar said, pretending to be interested. He was still reading over the records on his planet's enslavement.

"Yeah, one of the bummers of being a twin," Purple spoke as he walked over to the door.

"Whaaat?" he called.

"Unlock the door."

"You locked the door?" Lard Nar questioned, raising an invisible brow.

"Yup," Purple replied with a cheeky grin. "I'll be out in a minute," he told Red.

"We need to talk, now," Red said in a low voice.

"Crap… he must have heard about me rescuing you. I guess I'm going to be held up in here longer than I thought," Purple muttered.

"Why?" now Lard Nar really was curious.

"Haaa. Not telling you."

"Purple!" Red's voice boomed.

Lard Nar dropped his papers (at least they looked like papers, but Irk had no trees so they were obviously made of something different) and stared in the direction of the entrance.

"The minute is going to keep getting longer!" Purple retorted heatedly. "Go away!"

There was silence on the other side of the door, and for a moment Lard Nar thought the other Tallest had left.

"He's hacking into my room the jerk…" Purple whispered, glancing at Lard Nar. "Sorry, but you've got to hide now. Red hates you."

"What do you expect me to do exactly?" the Vortian asked in a low voice. He wasn't too sure why they were whispering, but if Purple was doing it, then there must be a reason. "I can't exactly move if you haven't noticed…"

"Oh right…" Purple sighed. "Oh, duck under the covers. I'll bury you in reports and junk."

"What!"

"Shh! Just do it," Purple hissed.

Lard Nar was struck speechless when the Tallest lowered his antennae and glowered at him. Purple actually looked dangerous… The Vortian quietly pulled the covers over his head while Purple rushed to gather as many documents and reports as he could to throw on top. When Red had finally managed to crack the code, Purple was sitting at his desk with a donut he had kept hidden somewhere in the room.

He turned slowly to regard the other Tallest with half a donut sticking out of his mouth.

"Was it really so hard to open the freaken door?" Red growled as he entered the room.

Purple shrugged his shoulders and continued chewing.

"What's wrong with you?"

Purple shrugged again. This only appeared to anger Red who marched over to his partner and grabbed him by the shoulder. He pulled the other Tallest to his feet. Purple swallowed.

"What?"

"Do not play stupid with me Purple! I know you aren't as stupid as you make yourself look! You've already proven that with the Vort fiasco!"

Purple blinked. "Are you ever going to get over that?"

Red slammed Purple into the wall, causing the lavender-eyed Tallest to wince. "Enough games… if I didn't know any better; I would think you're trying to under-mind me… that's treason Purple! Treason!"

"Uhh… yeah. It would be if I was doing that…"

"I hate that dlamn mask! You are so…"

"Look Red, this has been fun and everything, but you do lose your temper a lot. If our followers saw half the stuff you did to me out of blind rage, you would be accused of treason, not me," Purple told him calmly as he reached to remove Red's hand.

"That… those…" Red sputtered taking a step away from his co-Tallest. "Those were accidents."

"Yeah, sure," Purple said. "Why do you think I'm known as an idiot Red? I have to be in order to cover for you."

"I said I was sorry…"

"I know you are Red, I know that," Purple said patting him on the shoulder. "I don't take it personally, but you almost did it again."

"It's because that dlamn Vortian..."

"Lard Nar didn't do anything," Purple interrupted. "That was all me. I rescued him. You really shouldn't hate them so much you know."

"You're calling it by name now?" Red grumbled crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sometimes maybe."

"Is there any reason I'll accept why you won't let me disembowel him?"

"Probably not."

Red sighed and rubbed his forehead. He seemed to be calming down, at least for the moment. "You're strange… but I guess I should have known you would do something like this… is it because…?"

"Yup, probably," Purple replied without hearing the full question. He also began to nudge Red towards the door. "You interrupted my snacking time, so I'm kicking you out now."

"Yeah fine…" Red sighed again as he allowed himself to be pushed out of the room. "You will join me on the bridge soon, right?" he asked turning to look over his shoulder.

"Uh huh."

Click. The metal doors slid shut, and Purple breathed a sigh of relief. He held his hands behind his back to hide their trembling and made a conscious effort to appear relatively composed.

"Well, that was exciting," he remarked.

Lard Nar carefully sat up. The blanket and the junk slid off, and he stared sceptically at the Tallest. "What the heck was that…?" He'd always thought the red one was more calm and rational than Purple, but now he wasn't so sure…

"That was rage," Purple replied.

"I know that! It's just…"

"Not what you were expecting?" Purple questioned running a hand through his antennae. "Tell me about it… he's been this way since he became Tallest."

"And you?"

"Eh…" Purple shrugged his shoulders. "I'd like to think I haven't changed at all since the day I was first programmed."

"T-Tallest Purple Sir!" one of the technicians called, knocking on the door.

Purple got up and hovered over to meet with the Irken. "What is it?" he asked when the metal door slid open, and he saw the technician trembling out in the hall.

"I uh… with utmost respect… please help…?"

"I thought he gave up too easily…" Purple muttered. "Alright. Stay out in the hall. Don't go back until I go with you."

"Y-Yes sir! Thank you sir!"

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><p><strong>Author's Notes Warning/hint:** This is only the surface of Red's little temper problem. Also, there is no RaPr.

I'm not sure I'm happy with this title. It was going to be "Prisoner," but that title was taken by someone else already... then I was going to call it "Prisoner of the Empire" but that didn't sound quite right. After a bit of a debate, I settled on the current title. Well I guess that's better than leaving it blank right?

I didn't give the chapter titles too much thought in the beginning. They get a little better as the story progresses though... probably.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Notes/Reminder: **I don't own Invader Zim and there isn't going to be any romance. I take forever to post, usually on purpose. Slow plotline movement. Angst.

I'm pretty sure this is my stress reliever story. It's messed up my humor story 'Don't Call Me' once or twice. Writing two fanfics with completely opposite genres at the same time kind of messes with the atmosphere a bit. Oh well. Live and learn.

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><p><strong>Mask<strong>

A week of recovery had brought enough healing for Lard Nar to attempt walking. He hadn't seen the red Tallest since the day Irk's other leader came barging into Purple's room, and quite frankly he would be happy if he never did again. The red Tallest made him feel nervous… if Purple didn't jump in to defend him, he would be dead right now instead of plotting his escape.

Unfortunately he'd never been good at making plans which was why he always relied on Spleenk's suggestions. He didn't have his crew now, so he had to depend on himself. Besides, any idea he came up with had to be better than Spleenk's would have been… right?

But why were plans so hard to think of? He envied Zim a bit. The Irken had been nothing but trouble in the labs, but he could come up with plans at the drop of a hat... even if they were usually stupid and destructive.

"Well you got the standing part down," Purple commented from the entrance.

Lard Nar cringed. He hadn't seen Purple since early that morning. Or at least, he was pretty sure it had been morning.

"Are you going to try moving too?"

"I'm getting there," Lard Nar grumbled.

"Woe, no need to get defensive," Purple remarked raising both hands in mock defense. "I'm just joking with you."

The purple-eyed Tallest smirked. He had gotten himself a black eye and a bloody lip, yet he didn't seem to care.

"What happened to you?" Lard Nar asked, hoping to stall long enough for the Tallest to get bored and leave. He was pretty sure he was going to end up falling on his face at some point, and he was wishing to do that in private.

"Fell down the stairs," Purple shrugged.

Lard Nar raised an invisible brow. "Wearing a hover belt…?"

"Yup."

"And the stairs gave you a black eye..."

"Nah, it was probably the railing."

Lard Nar narrowed his eyes at the Tallest. "You're lying."

"And you…" Purple began as he came a bit closer. He bent down to look the Vortian in the eye. "Are stuck," he finished, giving Lard Nar a flick to the forehead which caused him to fall backwards.

Lard Nar glared up at the Tallest who stood over him laughing.

"You really don't care that you look like a wreck?" Lard Nar questioned him sceptically.

"Nope, not really," Purple replied as he extended his hand to the Vortian. "Come on. We don't have hover-belts your size, so you're going to have to get this walking thing down."

"Yeah I know, I don't want to be bed-ridden forever either," Lard Nar grumbled as he reached to take Purple's hand. When he realized what he was doing, he recoiled.

Purple laughed and straightened up. "For an enemy of the Empire, you're awfully trusting aren't you?"

"That isn't funny…"

"Haa… ok, but in all seriousness, do you think you can get up on your own?"

Lard Nar was silent for a moment. "No..." he muttered.

"Yeah, I didn't really think so," Purple remarked crouching down and taking him by the wrist. With one easy tug the Vortian was back on his feet. "Compared to getting up, this should be the easy part."

"You have experience?" Lard Nar muttered dryly, pulling away.

Purple paused for a few moments before responding. "Actually... yeah. I kind of do."

"The stairs," Lard Nar stated resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the Tallest's lame cover-up.

"They're tricky," Purple agreed, ignoring the Vortian's sarcasm. He grinned and moved back a bit. "The good thing about it though is you eventually learn how to land somewhat."

"You still got a black eye," Lard Nar reminded him.

"It's better than a broken arm," Purple responded, not losing his smile for a moment.

Lard Nar bit his tongue and carefully moved one of his arms behind his back. He thought the Tallest was threatening him.

With a sigh, Purple took a seat on the chair beside the desk and brushed back his antennae. "Not what I meant..." he said. His eyes flicked towards the door; they narrowed. "Hmm... that's not good." He cleared his throat. "You can come in now."

The door slid open, and a drone appeared. The shorter Irken appeared dazed. He had his red hood up over his face. When he walked he seemed to carry a limp.

"Ah, you... you who ever you are," Purple remarked. "What is it? Trouble with the 'stairs' again?"

"Forgive me my Tallest... but..." the poor technician couldn't complete his sentence. He collapsed before he could form another word.

Purple laughed and shook his head. "Oh goodie." He got up and turned to Lard Nar who was still frozen in place. The Vortian was staring at the Irken lying on the ground.

"Show him the way out when he wakes up," Purple told him. "I'll be back later."

"What are you going to do?" Lard Nar asked.

"Fix those stairs," Purple replied as he left the room.

Once the Tallest was gone, Lard Nar risked taking his first uneasy step. It was hard to keep his balance. His legs felt so weak.

The Irken lying on the ground wasn't opening its eyes.

"Hey..." the former captain spoke.

The technician didn't move.

Lard Nar carefully made his way over to the fallen Irken, taking slow easy steps. His legs were beginning to ache quite badly. He ground his teeth and did his best to ignore it.

"Come on, you're an Irken for Vort's sake..." he slowly bent down and tapped the unconscious technician's antennae. Still, there was no movement.

The Irken had a limp. How bad could its injuries possibly be?

He reached for the technician's neckband and pulled it down. The Irken's face was discoloured; a dark green and blue mess. Blood was dripping from its mouth.

Next, he carefully turned the Irken onto its back and worked on opening the rest of the uniform. He reeled back and nearly lost his balance when he saw the extent of the technician's injuries.

"Don't..." the Irken curled close to himself and let out a small whimper of pain. He had no energy to fight back regardless of what the Vortian did.

Luckily for him, Lard Nar was more prone to feel sympathy and compassion, even if the recipient was from a race the former captain disliked. "You should be in the med-bay..."

"Can't..." the Irken wheezed. "It was... Closed d-down... didn't want... ughh..."

"Take your time," Lard Nar told him. "Both of us aren't going anywhere."

The Irken sucked in a quivering breath. "You're... lucky... to have... Tallest's favor..."

Lucky? Lard Nar nearly scoffed at this, but instead he grit his teeth and managed a nod. He hadn't felt very lucky since his ship was shot down and his crew was killed... but Purple was acting very strange. Not only had the Tallest saved him, Purple had also helped him recover. Maybe there was a bit of luck in there somewhere... for whatever the blasted reason was, the purple Tallest liked him.

"On second thought, you probably shouldn't be talking so much..." Lard Nar said as he did up the technician's uniform in-order to hide the ugly bruises. "Internal bleeding isn't very pleasant."

The semi-conscious Irken mumbled something else, but Lard Nar couldn't make it out. He breathed a sigh and rubbed his forehead. It was too bad he hadn't taken any medical courses...

Purple returned a while later, looking a bit tired, but it appeared he hadn't received any further injuries. His shoulders slumped and his antennae drooped, but he continued to wear his smile. "Well... that was exhausting..." he paused and glanced down at the Irken still lying on the ground. Lard Nar had covered him with a blanket. The Vortian had used up most of his energy attempting to move around freely and had fallen asleep, seated in the Tallest's chair.

Purple sighed and began to push the Irken out into the hallway with his foot. "Stupid drone..." he muttered. "Lard Nar! Wake up!"

Startled by the sudden harshness in the purple Tallest's voice, Lard Nar lost his balance and nearly fell. He clung to the back of the chair and narrowed his eyes at Irk's leader.

"What...?"

"Did he wake up?"

"Yeah."

"Then why isn't he out of my room!"

"What...?" Lard Nar repeated in his blurry-eyed state of wakefulness. "It's not like he can move or anything. He's been beaten half to death."

"I don't want him in here..." Purple growled. "They're nothing but cowardly mooches... always trying to get me to..." he paused when he realized what he was saying and cleared his throat. With a final kick, the technician found himself out in the hallway. The door slid closed and Purple turned his gaze to the bed.

"Oh, and by the way, you'll be sleeping on the floor from now on," Purple told him. "Slaves don't get any kind of comfort here."

Lard Nar stared at Purple wordlessly. Perhaps something had happened between him and Red... or maybe this was the Tallest's true nature coming to the surface.

"You'll also accompany me everywhere... including the places where Red is. He hates you, but because you're my property, he shouldn't try anything."

"Uh huh..." Lard Nar continued to glare. No matter how much he thought about it, nothing Purple did made any sense to him, but he'd been in the business of resisting the Irken Empire long enough to know common self-defence. He wasn't helpless. He'd still fight with everything he had if an Irken, Tallest or not, tried to start something.

"I'm going to sleep," Purple remarked flopping down on the bed. "Don't wake me... for any reason."

"Fine, whatever," Lard Nar growled sliding off the chair. "I'll just go wander then."

"Fine..." Purple muttered. "If you get into trouble, it'll be your problem."

"I'll just tell them you told me to do it," Lard Nar stated as he carefully made his way to the door. Walking was still a bit of a pain, but he knew he wouldn't improve very much if he didn't push himself at least a little bit.

"Do what?" Purple still refused to look at him. He was lying face-down on the bed.

"Setting the ship on fire, something like that," Lard Nar replied.

"Ha ha... you'll be shot instantly before you have a chance... and I also have this."

The Tallest pulled a small remote from his pocket and held it up. "This connects to your collar. It'll zap you if I press this button. The intensity of the shock depends on my mood, and right now it's terrible."

"I'm still going out..." Lard Nar muttered. "I've got to at least find cleansing chalk to get some of this blood and ash off... "

"Get a new uniform too while you're at it."

"Like helk."

"Fine, but you better be back before I wake up, or you'll get one nasty shock."

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><p><strong>More Notes: <strong>Anyone who would speak like that to the Tallests would probably be dead by now. Just throwing that out there. The pocket is somewhere between the bands at the Tallest's mid-section. I only remember this because of the sandwich.

Poor nameless technician. He couldn't make it past the stairs apparently. Yes. Purple is acting oddly lenient towards Lard Nar while Red is... something else. More will be explained as the story progresses. Most of the chapters have already been written in advance. I don't like to start posting until I have a good chunk of the story already complete... I wonder why that is.

Of course my computer could always get another virus, forcing me to purge the entire system, and causing me to lose all of my files. I'm hoping that will be a one time thing. -sigh- I suck at rewriting.

Wow my notes are scattered. Review only if you have a strong desire to. I'll update whenever. Ok. Bye.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes: **I own no Zim or any other characters from the show. Remember the warnings. That is all.

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><p><strong>Balance<strong>

There was a stark contrast between the Tallests when they were alone and when they were with each other. Being a Vortian, Lard Nar didn't know everything about the Irken government, but everyone on his planet had at least some idea of the laws that governed Irk.

Red and Purple were taller than everyone else, so they had become the Tallests, no questions asked. They would always be Tallest until someone taller than them came along, or they happened to die.

Lard Nar was hoping the second would happen before the first, but either way, their position wasn't something they could just quit.

When Purple was alone, he became melancholy and irritable. His cheerful stupidity was a false persona he kept up around the drones and his partner.

Red on the other-hand was more laid-back when Purple was by his side. He smiled more and thought rationally about every problem presented to him. Lard Nar didn't spend enough time around him to assume this was a persona, but apparently when the red Tallest was alone he got violent and irrational.

Even so, the technicians remained deathly quite when both Tallests were in the room. The air would be heavy, and the silence unmeasurable, like they were attending a funeral.

Did Irkens even have funerals...?

Being Tallest Purple's slave was very annoying. In their society he was less than a table-headed service drone, and that was about as low as an Irken could get... but because he belonged solely to Purple, none of the other Irkens, including the red Tallest, could touch him.

This proved handy when he was searching for a way off the Massive. Unfortunately there were a lot of access codes needed for the docking bay, and the escape pods only activated during an emergency. There were vents and other things that could be used to make a grand escape, but he had no clue where anything went anymore.

It was just so... massive.

"Did I really help design this thing!" Lard Nar exclaimed suddenly.

Purple stopped reading whatever he had been reading and glanced over at him. "I don't know. Did you?"

"I thought I did..." the former captain muttered. He was sitting on the ground near the bed. "But I keep getting bloody lost in the bloody halls!"

"Eh..." Purple shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know anything about it. I just work here." He paused before adding, "Our builders could have changed some things."

"Probably..." Lard Nar agreed. "All of these wires sticking out everywhere are definitely part of an Irken design..."

"All the better to trip on of course," Purple remarked in a dull tone. "Now be quiet. I'm trying to read."

"Read what?" Lard Nar glowered at the Tallest. "You've been staring at that thing for the past half-cycle. Do you even know what it says?"

"Yes, it reads "99 ways to kill an annoying Vortian pest."

"Real funny..." Lard Nar remarked crossing his arms. "You zoned out, just admit it."

"And you didn't?"

"I got tired of waiting for your mind to come back, and for whatever stupid reason you have going on in your head, you won't let me leave the bloody room."

"Every time I let you go anywhere, you always try to escape," Purple replied wryly. "It's a bit annoying."

"Yeah? Well if you were a slave on board your enemy's ship, what would you do?"

"Never happen..." the Tallest stated, placing the tablet he was holding down on his desk.

"Hypothetically speaking," Lard Nar added with a hint of bitterness.

Purple rubbed one of his eyes and leaned forward a bit in his chair. "Well... first I would watch my captors for their weaknesses, poison them if possible, if that wasn't possible, I'd wait until I had access to them in a solitary place... then death and maiming would hopefully follow if I wasn't completely outclassed."

"And... you're letting me run around because?"

"One, you aren't running, you still have a limp. Two, you are much shorter and weaker than I am. Three, be grateful I don't keep you chained up."

Lard Nar balled his hands into fists. "So... you're telling me I'm not a threat to you then?"

"Yes, and if you are as intelligent as most Vortians seem to be, you'll let me keep thinking that way."

The Tallest was definitely moody again. Lard Nar narrowed his eyes at Purple. "You're acting like a brat."

"I won't act any differently," Purple retorted flattening his antennae against his head. He pushed himself away from the desk and stood up. "Besides... despite my general attitude, I am trying to be helpful."

Lard Nar just stared.

"You aren't dead right? Isn't that helpful?" Purple questioned.

"I guess so..." just ask the dlarn question he told himself. Slowly his fear of the Tallests had been disappearing. Purple apparently had no interest in killing or torturing him, although he'd received a few uncomfortable shocks when he refused to do stupid meaningless tasks, and Red seemed to be doing his best to ignore him completely.

One question wouldn't really make a difference now... would it?

"But why would you rescue me in the first place?"

Purple stiffened, and for a moment Lard Nar thought the Tallest wasn't going to answer.

"Good question," was the reply. Then another pause. "I guess... I respect Miyuki's wishes... even though she was killed on your planet."

"That was an accident caused by a very stupid Irken."

"Zim," Purple nodded. "Red and I know that now. Even so, you and the rest of your people were responsible for her safety that day. The fact that she was eaten by a blob creature so easily, the thing was made on your planet, and that no one else was harmed... well... we ended the alliance between Irk and Vort for that reason."

"I suppose that makes sense..." Lard Nar admitted. "I watched it happen... there wasn't anything I could do."

Purple smiled. "Tallests come and go. Look at what happened to Spork. He only lasted a few days, poor sucker. In a couple decades or so the next generation of Irkens will be grown, and if one of them is taller than me and Red, we're out."

He stretched his arms over his head. "Yup... but since Zim blew up most of our civilization, it'll probably be a while longer yet."

"He blew up your civilization?"

"Yeaah... it was during our first attempt at galactic conquest. Don't tell Red I told you, but there was an Operation Impending Doom one. It ended terribly. I can't remember the death toll exactly, but it was pretty big."

"Why wasn't he executed for that?"

Purple sighed. "Zim is... well... we wanted to, but then we didn't. He's different than us... call him what you want; an idiot or a defect, but the fact is he doesn't fit inside Irk's structure. Everyone who has assigned roles, a job they have to do until termination, would understand our strange fascination with him. Like... hope and jealousy I guess."

"That's a bit backwards."

"Yes, and he is annoying and stupid like you say, so we did try to have him terminated after he took control of the Massive and sent us through a star... the other attempts were kind of sloppy and spontaneous... call that the last straw I guess."

"That was Zim too...?" Lard Nar's mouth fell open in surprise. "He nearly killed you. If the double shield system hadn't been in place at that time..."

"Zim's corrupted data made the Control Brains insane," Purple continued. "They've been fixed, and now we know Zim can't be dealt with in the conventional way."

He started walking towards the door. "I'm going to grab myself a snack. If you want something, you have to tag along."

"Aren't you going to turn your hover belt on?" Lard Nar asked.

Purple blinked "Oh... right. Thanks slave." He flicked it on.

The former captain growled. "Call me Lard Nar... you twit." Even after Purple had shared all that information with him, the purple-eyed Tallest still had the nerve to call him a slave.

Purple turned to face the Vortian. "Only if you call me the Tallest."

"That's never going to happen."

Purple chuckled and shook his head.

"You are pretty stubborn for someone I can electrocute to within an inch of his life."

Lard Nar smirked. "Go ahead and try it Irken scum. I'll spite you by dying and coming back to haunt you for the rest of your miserable existence."

The former captain was beginning to learn more about the Tallests than he ever imagined, but he couldn't let his guard down. These tyrants were evil and needed to be stopped before they brought anymore planets to ruin.

"Just for that, I'm going to go to the control room, and you can go fetch me snacks."

"You're going to be waiting a long time for..." pain. He shut his eyes and ground his teeth as pulses of electricity raced through his body.

Purple held the remote, ready to press the button again if needed while Lard Nar slowly stood up. "If you don't want me to up the voltage, I suggest you do what you're told the first time Vortian."

* * *

><p><strong>More Author's Notes: <strong>Purple wasn't really reading "99 Ways to Kill and Annoying Vortian Pest." Actually, he doesn't really know what he was trying to read.

If the book exists, Red would probably have it in his room. This chapter was just to give a bit of background and the time-frame for this story. I think I mentioned somewhere that this fic takes place after the Trial episode so.. Zim has already been on trial for his life. Both Red and Purple know how the former Tallests were killed.

And yeah, even thought he helped design the thing, Lard Nar isn't quite sure how to navigate through the Massive. It's been a while, and the Irkens changed some of the original designs around during its construction.


	5. Chapter 5

**Glass Room**

**Author's Notes/Warnings: **There is violence in this chapter.. and some deaths.. I'd say more but I don't want to give anything too important away.

* * *

><p>How many days had he been on the Massive? Lard Nar wondered to himself. He was walking through the halls, his limp barely noticeable anymore, and the lone Irken janitor mopping the floors was doing it's best to stay far away from the Vortian.<p>

All of the Tallest's followers were careful to hide most of their hostility. They never spoke a word to 'the slave' and they always kept their distance. There was obvious resentment behind their hardened stares, but Lard Nar didn't mind it. As long as they stayed away, that was good enough for him.

The technician who had collapsed in Purple's room never reappeared. Even for an Irken, the injuries it had received had been substantial. Lard Nar assumed the poor creature had died shortly after Purple had removed it from his room.

The hall was eerily quiet. There wasn't even the usual sound of humming technology. Lard Nar shifted the snacks in his arms as he walked. These trips were becoming more and more frequent. It was tiresome.

"That's enough Red! I've had enough!"

Suddenly the quiet was broken by Purple's shouts.

"I didn't mean to!" Red stated loudly. "I didn't mean to do that, I swear Purple."

"You never mean to do any of it!" Purple continued to rant. "We lost another technician because of your stupid temper and now you have the nerve to barge into my room and start threatening me!"

"Purple, I promise..."

"You always make those stupid promises Red! Are you trying to piss me off!"

"Stop interrupting me!" Red barked. There was the sound of something crashing.

"So you want me to lose my freaken temper Purple! Congratulations, I just lost it!"

More sounds of a struggle ensued. Lard Nar carefully approached the metal door.

"I'm not taking it this time Red! I'm not your flurking punching-bag!"

When the door slid open, Lard Nar froze. Both Tallests were locked in hand to hand combat. The chair had been toppled over as well as the desk, the bed had been shoved against the wall, and there was blood spilt as well as broken screens from digital tablets and scattered pieces of technology covering the ground.

The Vortian stared for a moment. He wasn't exactly sure what to do. Oh well. His assignment had been to fetch snacks. There was no way he was getting involved in this mess.

He stepped around the two Tallests and the mess, dumped the snacks on the bed (because apparently dumping them on the floor was sacrilege), and was about to head out when he heard a sickening crack sound. He slowly turned to see that Red had gained the upper-hand on Purple and had struck the other Tallest's head against the wall.

Purple was dazed, but he wasn't willing to give up either. He lashed out at Red, landing a blow to his face and forcing the red clad Tallest to drop him.

Fury burned in Red's eyes. Purple breathed heavily and felt the blood dripping from the side of his head. Then he noticed Lard Nar and his eyes narrowed. "Get... out..." he breathed.

Red glanced over his shoulder and growled. "You never let anyone into your room, but you let that Vortian scumbag go anywhere it wants."

Lard Nar resisted the urge to roll his eyes. If that was the case, he'd be on an escape pod heading for Food Courtia by now. "Whatever, I was just leaving."

"No, stay," Red told him with a smirk. "Maybe Purple would behave better if I killed you first."

"Good luck with that one," Lard Nar said squaring his shoulders as he stood ready to face the Tallest.

Purple shoved himself away from the wall and wrapped his arms around Red's neck. The other Tallest flailed and shouted profanities.

"Get out, get out now!" Purple hollered.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, Lard Nar was quick to do just that. He breathed a sigh and rubbed his face. Ok... so he had nearly fought with the red Tallest... big deal. The door glided shut, and he stood back, waiting for the shouting and banging to stop.

A half-cycle passed before the sounds of fighting halted. The door slid open and Red staggered out looking a bit worse for wear. He straightened his armour with his good arm and ground his teeth in pain. "Blast... blast... dlark it all..." His face was bruised and one of his antennae was crooked, but other than that he seemed fine.

Once the red Tallest had disappeared down the hall, Lard Nar stepped out into the open and walked over to the closed metal door. There was no sound coming from inside. Purple had probably lost... he might also be dead.

Sucking in a breath, Lard Nar took a tentative step forward, and the door opened with a soft whir.

"Purple...?" he tried using the Tallest's name. The room was a wreck; the desk had been broken in half, and the chair was mangled and lying in pieces near the bed. The bed its self had suffered enough damage that it had collapsed, but that was fixable.

A weak moan alerted Lard Nar to the Tallest's presence. He carefully approached Purple who was lying in a pool of blood behind the remains of his desk. "What... do... you want...?" the Tallest questioned wearily.

"I guess I was curious to see if you survived or not..." Lard Nar admitted.

Purple chuckled. His eyes were closed, his face was bruised and swollen, there was blood oozing from the wound to his head, and he seemed unable to move.

"Don't get any ideas..." Purple told him with an edge of warning. He cracked open an eye in order to study the Vortian. It took a lot of concentration for him to focus on the blurred figure of Lard Nar. "I still got... the remote... you'd be dead... long before... you could do... anything..."

"I doubt you'll be able to blame this on the stairs," Lard Nar mused, ignoring the Tallest's threat.

"Oh... ha... funny guy..." Purple mumbled. "Nope... stairs won't... do it... need a medic or.. something... first..."

Lard Nar eyed the Tallest's pak. He wondered how easy it would be to take it and leave the Tallest to die... but even if Purple was weak right now, he was obviously on the defensive. He did not want to suffer a debilitating shock.

The former captain brushed the thought of killing Purple away. There would be other opportunities. "So... do you want me to get someone in here?"

"If you can... if not... bandages'll work..."

"Fine. I'll see if anyone is around," Lard Nar told him. "Wait here... oh right. That's not going to be a problem is it?"

"Real... jerk..." Purple sucked in a shaky breath.

In this messed up reality, Lard Nar did owe the Tallest a bit of a favour for not killing him, so he left the room and began searching the Massive for a medical facility. He found it a while later, on the third floor, at the end of one of the many long hallways, but it was closed down.

"Well if that doesn't beat all..." Lard Nar grumbled. "Stupid Irkens flying without an operational medical facility..." He hacked into the machine keeping the door sealed shut and figured out the code. It didn't take long for him to open the door that way, and once it was open he began searching for different things to use on the Tallest.

Maybe some poison..? no, focus. He shut his eyes and shook his head. There would be plenty of time later to kill Purple, he just needed to be patient. Bandages and painkillers would have to do for now. He grabbed a bottle of pain killers off the bottom shelf and took a half roll of bandages from a cabinet.

Good enough.

There were no janitors in the hallways... there wasn't a breath of anyone anywhere.

Then he saw the body of a small Irken janitor lying crumpled on the ground. His bucket and mop appeared to have been tossed a great length down the hall.

Ignoring the unconscious Irken, Lard Nar continued back to Purple's room. He came across two more beaten and bloodied Irkens before he reached the closed door.

Apparently Purple's efforts hadn't been enough to slow his partner down.

Again he was surprised at the general disorganization of everything in the room. He picked his way over the debris and crouched down next to Purple.

"So... the medics appear to have taken a vacation or something," he told the semi-conscious Tallest. "I scrounged these up from the medical facility." He held out the bottle of pills and the roll of bandages.

"That'll work..." Purple murmured as he slowly propped himself up. When he'd gotten into a sitting position, he shoved his shoulder back into place with a crack and held out his hand for the objects.

"Good thing... he didn't get hold... of you huh...?" Purple said quietly. Lard Nar handed him both objects and folded his arms across his chest.

"I guess, but you might not have gotten beaten quite so badly if he did."

Purple coughed a bit. Blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth. "Yeah... maybe... I'm taller and stronger... I can take more... of it..."

"Taller yeah, stronger, I'm not so sure," Lard Nar remarked. "How much voltage do you think you could take in a day?"

"Don't.. make me... laugh..." Purple wheezed. "It... hurts..."

"Anything to cause you pain," Lard Nar said. "Anyway, it's been grand, but I'm going to go pick some of the Irken's pockets. Maybe they'll have a key or something I can use later."

"Which ones...?"

"Your friend got a hold of two drones and a janitor outside."

Purple reflected over this for a moment. "Maybe the janitor... better chance he has... a pass...we don't have keys..."

"That's what I was thinking." Lard Nar looked at the destruction in the room before regarding Purple again. "Why is he like this?"

"Frustrated... me and him... we can't... be like... other Irkens... now..."

"But you're Tallests, Irk's leaders. You have everything you could ever want."

"Red was... more social than me... he misses... exploring planets... fighting enemies... hanging out with... fellow soldiers..." Purple winced. "It's just me... and him now... until termination... just us... no one can... come in..."

"You mean to tell me you're both isolated? The drones answering at your beck and call, and the Invaders and other Irkens that respect you mean nothing?"

"It's nice... everything an Irken... wants... but... no one else... can get close... respect... gets in the way..."

"But there have been other Tallests, and they seemed fine... well... I only knew Tallest Miyuki. She was a great leader."

"Never... asked her... did you...?"

"Well, it's not like I could really... I was just a scientist."

"Just a drone... just a scientist... just an Invader... no one can get close..." Purple chuckled. "Told you so..."

As Lard Nar was leaving, he reflected over what he had learned about the current Tallests. He knew they were younger than both the previous Tallests had been, but he still wasn't sure how loneliness could effect them when they had each other.

But they couldn't always be around each other could they? Being alone made them uncomfortable and moody, Red more so than Purple, but having no choice about always having to be together wasn't good either...

"What would be the answer then?" Lard Nar asked, standing out in the hall.

"Deal with it... until termination... then die," Purple replied managing a half-hearted smile. "No big deal..."

The Tallests were like glass dolls... everyone could look at them, but no one was allowed to touch. It was a very trapped existence...

Lard Nar began to wonder if he was the prisoner here, or if Purple was.

* * *

><p><strong>More Notes: <strong>So Purple got a beating. Normally he doesn't fight back. Stuff changes. Lard Nar also casually mentions his escape plans to Purple now. Well, it's kind of obvious he wants to escape anyway. By the way, that's about the extent of Red's rage right there. Kinda...

Oh, and Purple did know that the medics weren't there, but since he's in pain, he forgot. Anyway, that's just Purple's opinion on why Red is like that but... who knows if that's the real reason.

By the by. This is all seriousness, so they won't have a lot of resemblance to their carefree funny personalities on the show. That's probably become pretty obvious though right? Yeah. Cool. Alright.


	6. Chapter 6

**Not Playing**

**Author's notes: **Yes, in this fic Red is a violent jerk-face and Purple is actually pretty clever. His stupidity is just an act in order to cover up the various bruises he gets from his companion. Why Purple puts up with Red's crap is explained better later.

Enjoy reading. I'm going to bed. Oh.. now every time you read my notes it'll look like I'm going to bed.

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><p>"Err... what is this...?" Lard Nar asked looking at the ugly pink uniform Purple had given him.<p>

"That's standard Irken attire," Purple answered. After only three days of recovering, he had gotten a lot better. He still had one of his arms in a sling and there were bandages covering half of his face, but he could hover around and talk normally.

Lard Nar tossed it on the ground. "Never, never will you get me to wear anything as putridity ugly as that so help me..."

The Tallest blinked down at the uniform crumpled on the ground. "I don't see anything wrong with it."

"I don't care," Lard Nar growled. "It's still not going to happen."

"Well it's not like we carry much else," Purple informed him. "It's either that or technician clothes."

Lard Nar paused to think about it. Technician uniforms weren't as bad looking as regular Irken wear, but they were still pretty bad. Besides, he was against the Irken Empire. What kind of former captain of the Resisty would he be if he wore his enemy's clothes? Especially since he was still planning on escaping and forming another resistance...

"For the last time Irken, I refuse to wear anything you and your people wear."

"Do I really have to have something sent in from Vort?" Purple muttered rubbing his temples. All of this arguing was beginning to give him a headache.

"That would be preferred," Lard Nar told him. "Although living in rags does suit my current predicament doesn't it? So why bother?"

"You always ask me a hundred questions," Purple sighed. "Do I always need to have a reason?"

"You're probably having a germaphobe attack every time I touch something aren't you?"

The corner of Purple's mouth twitched. Lard Nar had guessed right.

"That's not my problem," the former captain remarked shrugging. "Since leaving my planet, and the sterile labs I used to work in, I've gotten used to dirt. I even had a Resisty member who regularly barfed goo everywhere."

"Ok... that's just disgusting."

"Not for them it isn't," Lard Nar retorted. "Are we finished talking about this?"

Purple gave him a hard look.

The former captain sighed. Irkens could be so stubborn.

"Fine, get me the technicians stuff and I'll turn it into something wearable."

"What do you mean?"

Lard Nar shrugged. "I'll improvise. If I remove the neckband, completely destroy the ugly skirt thing, and stitch up the bottom of the pants, it might not be too unbearable to wear."

Purple raised an invisible brow. "Seriously? You'd put that much work into not looking like us?"

"I've never been someone who supports conformity," Lard Nar replied. "Couldn't you tell?"

The Tallest sighed. "Fine... I'll go find something. What colour? There are only two choices."

Red or purple; Lard Nar wasn't thrilled about wearing either, but he wasn't about to push the Tallest any further. Judging by Purple's flattened antennae and annoyed scowl, he was walking on thin ice as it was.

It was amazing enough that Purple was willing to go get him anything... sometimes he wondered if there was something really wrong with the Tallest... like maybe his Pak was shorting out or something.

"Do you think the red guy would like me any better if I wore his colour?" Lard Nar asked jokingly.

Purple's eyes widened a little, and he bit his lip. "Purple it is..." he muttered as he turned and left the room.

Lard Nar stared at the closed door for a moment. Purple had been brooding over his fight with Red since he had first been able to move again. At least the room was in better shape than it was right after the fight. The former leader of the Resisty had fixed up the bed and desk while Purple was recovering on the first day before moving on to clean up the rest of the mess.

The chair was, as he thought, not salvageable.

He hadn't really been forced to clean anything... with Purple barely conscious, Lard Nar could have simply left and done nothing. He would have gotten zapped for it later sure, but he didn't care much about that anymore. If he was completely against what Purple demanded from him, he wouldn't do it no matter how many shocks he received.

Besides, Purple never turned it up to full power. Lard Nar managed to get a quick look at the device when he thought the Tallest was asleep. Purple wasn't sleeping, but before he was hit for 'trying to steal it', he read the gauge. Full power would leave him dead, or at least as near to death as one could get.

He glanced down at the clothes lying on the ground and scooped them up. There was no point in letting them go to waste. He brought them underneath the desk; the place he'd been sleeping since he'd been forbidden from touching the bed, and dropped them there.

Sleeping on clothes would be much better than sleeping on cold hard tile.

He dusted off his hands. Of course the strange clothes weren't dirty, but the look of them still gave him the creeps. Hundreds of thousands of Irkens were currently wearing uniforms exactly like that one.

It only took him a few moments to get bored waiting for Purple, so he left. It was too bad the janitor the red Tallest had knocked out a few days before wasn't carrying anything of importance on him. The two drones were equally disappointing.

He also hadn't been able to come up with any kind of plan at all.

"This is starting to get ridiculous..." he told himself. He could at least find some kind of storage room and start building something that could destroy the Massive from the inside.

Lard Nar paused in mid stride. Now wasn't that a fantastic idea! But where was he going to find a storage type room on this gigantic ship? He'd already explored several floors and multiple rooms... It would be a little too obvious if he asked Purple, and the lavender eyed Tallest gave him the impression that he knew about as much about the layout of the Massive as the Vortian did anyway... Actually, Purple probably knew even less.

Lard Nar wondered if the interior layout had really changed so much since the prototype... or maybe he really had forgotten his own designs already.

The halls were quiet, but he had no fear of accidentally running into the red Tallest. Since Red and Purple fought, the red one had locked himself in his room and hadn't come out. Purple hadn't been making much of an effort to speak with his illusive co-Tallest either.

None of the technicians or drones asked Purple about his bandages, and the Tallest didn't tell them anything about it. Everyone was pretending that there was nothing wrong.

He shook his head. Just what was he thinking just now? He needed to focus. The Tallests were evil and he was their prisoner. He needed to escape, gather a larger force to oppose the Armada, and blast the Tallests to their doom.

A smile came to him as he continued trying to formulate a plan.

"You look pretty happy," Purple commented.

Lard Nar stopped walking and quickly snapped out of his thoughts. "Yeah, I try to be," he offered, not sounding entirely sure of himself. The purple Tallest had just come out of one of the rooms. The door was still open, and now his idea had completely vanished.

"Where is everyone?" Lard Nar asked hoping to change the subject.

"Most of them are in the lower chambers," Purple replied. "They're trying to avoid our quarters while Red is in a bad mood. The technicians are still in the same place they always are... since I'm the only one currently willing to give orders, I have to make frequent trips to the control room." His eyes narrowed and his antennae fell back a bit. "I don't remember saying you could wander around out here."

"But you also didn't say I had to stay where I was either," Lard Nar reminded him.

"Oh... right..." Purple tossed the technician's uniform he'd been holding at the Vortian who barely managed to catch it. "Turn this into whatever you want. I'll be in the control room. Try to stay out of the way. I'll shock you when I need you for something."

He rubbed his temples as he began hovering down the hall.

"I'm kind of curious," Lard Nar spoke, watching him leave. "Just how old are you anyway?"

"Ugh... you really are a creature with a hundred questions aren't you?" Purple remarked heaving a sigh. Despite this response, he paused to consider the question.

"You rescued a former Vortian scientist," Lard Nar informed the Tallest wryly. "Of course I'm going to have a lot of questions."

"Next time I'll rescue a former janitor or window cleaner then."

"Are you going to answer my question or not?"

"Seventeen," Purple responded. "In Irken years anyway. Why does it matter?"

The Tallest was younger than Lard Nar thought... Purple only looked older because of his height. Now guilt was going to keep him from killing the stupid Irken off. He really shouldn't have asked.

"You act much younger sometimes," Lard Nar retorted. It wasn't really true... but he couldn't think of anything else to say. If anything, Purple seemed pretty mature. It was the mask he wore that made him appear goofy and immature... like a child.

"Whatever," Purple floated down the hall and took one of the hover platforms up to the next floor.

Purple was still moody. Lard Nar sighed. Oh well, he needed to get to work on this terrible technician's uniform. Changing it into something less horrid was going to take a bit of time, especially since he didn't have any of the proper tools.

When he had finished tying the make-shift sash around his waist (formerly the skirt) the outfit was complete. He'd turned the black gloves into wristbands, the neckband into a vest which he wore underneath the regular Irken-styled shirt. He'd also sewed up the pants since Vortians didn't really wear things like shoes or boots.

Finding the tools had probably taken longer than the actual work its self.

"This is about as Vortian as these clothes are going to get..." he told himself. He was in a small empty room the Tallests seemed to have forgotten about. There was nothing in there but some wire poking down through the ceiling.

Then he felt the electrical current pulsate through his body. He ground his teeth and held his head. "Dlarn Tallest is going to give me a headache..." he grumbled as he stumbled out of the room.

The hallways were still much too quiet. If he was still on board his ship, there would have been someone hanging around and chatting at almost every turn.

* * *

><p>"<em>Hey captain, I think we're being followed!" Spleenk announced looking somewhat puzzled over his monitor.<em>

"_By what?" Lard Nar asked sitting upright in his captain's chair. "Bring it up on the monitors."_

"_Holy smokes sir!" Shloonktapooxis exclaimed drifting in place nearby. "Isn't that... that..."_

"_The Massive!" Lard Nar remarked loudly, trying to keep his panic down so he wouldn't disturb his crew. Unfortunately his initial outburst hadn't gone unnoticed._

_Everyone began to panic almost instantly. They ran around yelling. _

"_Do not panic!" Lard Nar shouted over the racket. "This is no time to..." A bright flash appeared on the monitors. The ship was flung violently onto its side. He managed to hang on to his chair and he reached for his controls. He needed to get the ship flying straight again._

_Another explosion, and everything became dark._

* * *

><p>"<em>So..." One of the blob creatures, Snorgins, began sounding a bit unsure. "What happens if the Tallests catch us...?"<em>

_Lard Nar paused in mid-stride and turned to regard the member of the Resisty. There was no point in trying to make light of their enemies._

"_We'll all die in a firey explosion," he responded. _

"_Then... we're all going to die?"_

"_We're all going to die one way or another anyway," Lard Nar replied offering him a half-hearted smile. "I'd just rather die free than a slave you know?" He sucked in a breath. "But... if you feel the need to leave I'll understand..."_

"_If I may sir... I don't have any place left to go back to... none of us do."_

"_Then let's press forward together," Lard Nar said as he and his crew member continued towards the control room. "Who knows? Me might end up taking down the Irkens, with a bit of luck."_

"_Don't you mean a lot of luck?"_

"_Yeah," Lard Nar agreed. "A lot of luck."_

* * *

><p>Lard Nar blinked and took a quick look around. He was already at the control room.<p>

The memories he had of his crew brought a sudden stab of loneliness. He truly missed everyone...

He couldn't deny that they were dead either... the Tallests had killed them all without any remorse...he knew that, even if he didn't allow himself much time to think about it.

His eyes widened with this realization. Both Tallests had done this to him, not just the red Tallest. "And to think... I almost trusted the purple one..." he muttered to himself. He couldn't allow himself to get distracted. He needed to find a way to either escape outright or blow up the Massive.

The door slid open and he stepped into the room. It was unnerving how quiet the technicians were...

"You called?" Lard Nar questioned the Tallest with a bit of forced humour.

Purple yawned. He was sitting on his chair looking rather bored. "I found you some slave work to do."

That sure sounded exciting... not.

"Go to the third level of the ship and find Ral. It shouldn't be too hard. You remember the storage pods on either side of the Massive right? You helped design them. Go to the one on the left. Ral will tell you what needs to get done."

"Say I get lost on my way there," Lard Nar ventured.

"You have ten minutes, if you aren't there by then, Ral will let me know and you'll be in trouble."

He had ten minutes to make it from the tenth floor down to the third? Of course that was entirely possible if you were say a Meekrob or something similar.

Stupid Tallests... he didn't even know who this 'Ral' person was.

At least his leg was healed. Now just how slippery were the floors...?

* * *

><p><strong>Notes and stuff: <strong> The flashbacks happened out of order on purpose.

I can't remember if I've explained what a cycle is... but if you were wondering what it is, it's an hour. A half-cycle is a half an hour. I guessed Purple's age based on what Zim's age is. Since they were smeets at the same time and everything. How old is Lard Nar in this fic? Well um... older than the Tallest that's for sure.


	7. Chapter 7

**Reasons**

**Warning/notes:** Annoying OC alert. I don't own invader Zim. Ral is my OC, but the Irken species belongs to Jhonen. I put almost zero effort in making up Ral. He's just some annoying nobody on the Massive really...

* * *

><p>He raced down halls, through corridors, down flights of stairs and used several hover platforms. He was happy to test out his mobility, but he wasn't thrilled about having to do whatever it was the Tallest wanted him to do.<p>

There weren't very many Irkens in the hallways, but the ones who were walking, minding their own business, were very quick to get out of his way. The one janitorial drone that wasn't ended up against the wall with a bucket stuck to his face. Vortians were fast. There was no doubt about it, but Lard Nar couldn't keep up the pace and he eventually slowed down to a jog.

Prolonged running wasn't a Vortian's speciality. Short bursts of speed were good, but anymore than that would cause them to lose their balance. It was a tricky thing. Young Vortians who didn't know their limits would race each other until they collapsed, damaging their lungs and zapping their energy.

"I think I'm on level six... three more levels..." he told himself wiping some sweat from his forehead. He spotted another platform and smirked. "There's level five."

No pain or side-effects of any kind. If it wasn't for the dlarn collar around his neck he might have felt free for a moment.

I will not die a slave... I can't die a slave.

At least he had hope.

And now he really needed to walk the rest of the way...

* * *

><p>"Woe..." the Irken standing at two large doors blinked. He was a decent height, not as tall as most of the invaders, but he wasn't quite as short as a janitor either. "You navigated through the Massive already?"<p>

"Didn't I... have to?" Lard Nar asked still trying to catch his breath. He was pretty sure that despite his best efforts, he had ended up being late anyway.

The Irken laughed and slapped his forehead. "Ho ho, no," he responded. "My Tallest told me to expect you in half a cycle."

A bloody half an hour? Lard Nar squeezed his hands into fists. The Tallest was messing with him.

"But hey, the sooner you start the sooner you finish right?" Ral questioned shrugging his shoulders. "Come with me, I'll show you around."

Ral's smile seemed genuine. He walked with his head up as well, something that Irkens on the upper floors didn't do. This Irken had probably never been on the receiving end of either of his Tallest's wrath Lard Nar decided.

The giant doors opened and a light flicked on. There were rows of snacks lining the shelves on the walls and there were even more stacked on shelves in the middle of the room. They rose high enough to almost touch the ceiling.

"Your job is to reorganize everything," Ral explained.

"On my own?" Lard Nar asked blinking up at the shelves.

"Yup, I'm just here to supervise," Ral told him before gesturing around the room. "I've already organized all of this once, alphabetically of course, but Tallest Purple decided he wants everything arranged by colour and hue instead."

"But... what does colour have to do with anything? They're just wrappers."

Ral gasped. "Colours not important? Slave, in Irken society, colours are everything! Besides, the taste is usually different depending on the colours. For example: things wrapped in blue wrapping often taste like Blukal berry, right?"

"Unless there's low sodium, then its that colour for the low sodium..." Lard Nar remarked, not at all impressed by the explanation. "Besides, I thought height was everything.."

"See? Colours are important," Ral remarked, pointing an accusing finger at the Vortian. "Now you better start organizing or you'll be here all week."

"I think I'm going to be here all week regardless."

Ral was a fairly talkative Irken. He smiled a lot, told horrendous jokes and long stories about his days as a regular Irken citizen, offered advice when it was not wanted, and that was all he did.

"So she set the Blorch Rat on fire. Get it?" Ral laughed. "On fire!"

Lard Nar gave him a blank stare before reaching for another package of something.

Ral's laughter died away quickly when he realized the Vortian didn't appear to be getting the joke. The red-eyed Irken crossed his arms. "I'm starting to think you don't have a sense of humor."

"Really? I was thinking the same thing about you," Lard Nar retorted.

"My jokes are funny!" Ral insisted sounding a bit defensive.

The former captain of the Resisty rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure how long he had been trapped inside the storage pod, but he was beginning to wish he was alone completely rather than being forced to share bad company with a loud-mouthed Irken.

"You know, back before I worked on the Massive..."

Lard Nar tuned him out and continued filing the snacks on the shelf.

"That blue is darker than it should be!" Ral suddenly cut in, snapping Lard Nar from his daze.

"Did the Tallest say it had to be done well?" Lard Nar growled.

Ral opened his mouth to speak, and then he paused, looking somewhat puzzled. "Well no actually..." the Irken replied scratching his head. His eyes hardened a bit and he stood up straighter. "But the Tallests always expect a good job!" He insisted.

The Vortian sighed. Ral wasn't quite as dumb as he looked.

"Just shut up so I can get this done."

"Heeeyy! That's definitely the wrong shade of blue!"

This was going to be a very... very long assignment..

* * *

><p>Purple glanced up from his writing tablet when he heard the door open. He chuckled a bit when he saw how exhausted Lard Nar appeared. The Vortian looked like he could collapse at any moment.<p>

"That stupid Irken... does he ever shut up?" Lard Nar asked.

"Will you ever stop asking me questions?" Purple countered, placing his stylus down on the desk. There was no point trying to write anything now.

The Vortian was still a bit dazed, so it took him a moment to realize what the response had been. "Oh, ha... ha..." he remarked not sounding the least bit amused. "Well you can make fun of me all you want, but your servant, or drone or whatever he is, will not be responding to ANY of your transmissions now."

"Did you kill him?" Purple questioned, completely unfazed.

"Should I be appalled or sickened by that comment...?" Lard Nar pondered out-loud to himself. He shook his head. "Of course I didn't kill him! I simply tied him up with a rope I fashioned out of wrappers and gagged him with his own boot. If your want to look for him, you'll find him in one of the weapons storage units on the fourth floor."

Purple shrugged his shoulders. It was obvious to the former captain that the Tallest didn't care for the safety or well-being of this particular follower. He didn't seem to care much about any of his followers.. so the fact that Purple sometimes responded to their pleas for help was a little puzzling

"Heh..." Purple smirked. "A rebel that can't kill huh? What were you thinking trying to stand against the Empire?"

"A soldier and the planet's leaders are much different than a babbling fool of a civilian."

"There might be civilians, but we are all soldiers," Purple replied leaning back a bit in his chair. "Some are just better than others."

"But if you are programmed as an adviser, or a food service worker, or anything else like that, would you still be considered a soldier?"

Purple paused. "You know... You're the only one that makes me think this much."

"You're welcome."

The Tallest sighed. "Well... all of us are born soldiers... but the fact that some of us get recoded to do something else would suggest that not all Irkens are expected to fight or participate during invasions, still, all of us are capable of fighting whether we are coded for it or not. It's almost like... a primary function really. All smeets go through basic combat training."

Lard Nar nodded in recognition. "But... Ral did as well? I can't really believe it."

"Like I said... some are better than others. He happens to be one of the not so good ones. The Control Brains recoded him as a caretaker; they're used to look after buildings, or to train smeets. We didn't really trust him around smeets, so we stuck him on the Massive and kept him busy with pointless tasks."

"Speaking of pointless tasks..."

"I approached Red today. As you know, he's locked himself in his room out of self-pity, and he said he would be returning very soon," Purple explained. "If you were around right now, he could be set off again. He really hates you."

Lard Nar sighed and rubbed his temples. "So you're just keeping me out of the way then?"

"Pretty much... and now I have a question for you..." Purple began standing up so he could leer down at the Vortian. "What happened to the snacks that used to be in those wrappers you used, huh?"

Lard Nar glanced away from the Tallest and took to looking at the wall instead.

"Well..."

"Did you destroy them?"

"Uh... not exactly."

Purple's antennae lowered, and he scowled. "You better explain then."

"They are salvageable."

"You left them on the floor didn't you?"

"Define the floor..."

ZZZZTTT!

Purple tucked the remote back into his outfit. "You have to re-wrap all of them."

Lard Nar couldn't move from the place he'd collapsed on the floor. He couldn't even open his mouth to speak. All of the electricity that had shot through his body left him very much paralyzed.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes..<strong> Again, Purple doesn't care how many of his followers end up dead. I'd like to point out Lard Nar has yet to kill a single Irken while Purple has probably ordered (or at least been witness to) the execution many aliens, so there is a bit of an off-balance there. Lard Nar is still pretty naive when it comes to war and life-and-death struggles.

The Blukal-berry is the alien equivalent to a blueberry.. only it doesn't really look much like a blueberry. I'd draw you a picture, but I'm too lazy.

Wasting snacks is a horrible crime in Irken society. Lard Nar is lucky he was only electrocuted.


	8. Chapter 8

**Why were my titles for the past few chapters hanging out up here? **I ask myself. **  
><strong>

**Author's Notes/Lament:** This is what I do instead of doing my homework.. I'm going to fail. (sigh) College, work, volunteering, all of these good things keep me pretty busy. Just in case you were wondering why I sometimes vanish. I'm in the process of quitting my horrible job though, so updates may happen faster for a brief time. Maybe. Perhaps. Sort of.

**Warning:** another OC alert.

* * *

><p><strong>Troubles<strong>

Ral was replaced by a much more bearable Irken named Grahl. The shorter Irken hardly spoke a word, and he never made any complaints about what Lard Nar was doing. He was simply there to make sure the task got done.

The silence was stifling at times. Being in such quiet was unusual for the former captain of a very loud resistance. He glanced over at the smaller Irken who was watching him solemnly.

"Can you speak?" Lard Nar asked him after a while.

"Y-yes..." the Grahl replied in a timid voice.

This gained the Vortian's curiosity, and he stopped stocking in order to fully regard the Irken. "Why don't you then?"

"I... I do not wish to end up like Ral sir..."

"You mean like tied up?" Lard Nar raised an invisible brow. It couldn't have been that frightening.

"No... what happened after my Tallest found out you took out Ral... that's what I'm afraid of..."

"What happened?"

"My Tallest Red had him deactivated."

"Because I tied him up?"

"You are a Vortian... no offence sir... my Tallest Red does not like your kind very much... so when he found out you had easily subdued Ral... my Tallest had Ral's pak ripped off. It took ten minutes for him to die sir... it was... not something I enjoyed watching, and I do not wish to experience such a thing for myself."

"Ah... I see..." Lard Nar clenched his hands into fists and ground his teeth. What the flurk did the red Tallest think he was doing?

"Could... could you please get back to what you were doing sir?"

"Oh... yes ,of course," Lard Nar looked back at the shelf he was filling. He was still on the blue wrappers. He thought he might move on to the yellow ones when he was finished. "Did Purple watch too?" he suddenly asked.

"My Tallest Purple does not agree with such methods of termination... I believe he was either unaware or simply chose not to attend."

"I could easily take you down as well... I wonder why the red-guy decided to send you instead of one of those big burly soldiers that normally guard the prisoners."

"Because he would need Tallest Purple's permission..." Grahl replied. "He simply replaced Ral..." The Irken took an uneasy step back. "Please don't do anything to me sir... my Tallest will have me deactivated for such a thing..."

"Don't worry, you aren't nearly as aggravating as Ral."

"Th-Thank you sir..."

"Call me Lard Nar."

"Yes sir."

Purple had taken off all of his bandages. There were no visible scars, so when they arrived at their destination, no one would discover anything unusual.

"Is your antenna still bent?" the lavender eyed Tallest questioned his co-ruler.

Red's antennae were flattened against his head, and he sat in his chair with his arms folded over his chest. "I fixed it yesterday."

"Well you might want to try fixing it again."

They had just been in an argument over Ral's death. Purple thought the Irken care-taker's deactivation had been unnecessary while Red believed he should be able to deactivate anyone he wanted. There had been no blows exchanged, but all of the technicians were on edge.

"It IS fixed Purple," Red insisted.

"You didn't use a mirror when you fixed it did you?"

"Would you just shut up already? You're giving me a headache."

Purple let out a sigh before yanking his co-Tallest's crooked antenna back into place.

"Ouch!" Red exclaimed, raising his hand to smack Purple.

"Heeey, adviser Tad!" Purple remarked, dodging Red's strike. "You wanted to talk about something?" Red stopped to regard the green-eyed Irken who had appeared on the large monitor in front of them.

"Yes my Tallest..." the adviser replied calmly. "The Control Brains have just alerted us of another deactivation on board the Massive... they wanted us to check with you to make sure everything is alright."

"Who died exactly?" Purple questioned turning to Red. "A Riff or a Raf or something?"

"It was Ral," Red replied as a matter of fact. "You know, the caretaker guy."

"Oh yeah, some drones were playing a prank, and he ended up getting accidentally sucked out of the airlock. You know how it is," Purple shrugged.

"Yes sirs... but not long ago a janitor was killed, and two drones suffered life-threatening injuries because of a power-core reaction so..."

"That was taken care of," Red responded. "I saw to it myself."

"Yeah, it won't happen again," Purple remarked, nodding in agreement. "And the uh... the airlock thing won't happen again either."

"If that's all, we're kind of busy overseeing Operation Impending Doom two," Red stated.

"Ah yes... sorry to bother you my Tallest..." Adviser Tad bowed and the screen went blank.

Purple rubbed his forehead. "I think that went well," he grinned.

"Stop acting already..." Red grumbled.

"Aw... fine," Purple replied reaching for a bag of chips that he was keeping beside his chair. His smile faded as he tore into the bag. "I'm just trying to help you know."

"I know you are..." Red sighed. "Thanks Purple... you really are the best."

Purple smirked. "And don't you forget it," he remarked, holding out his bag of chips. "Want some?"

Red took a few and sat back in his chair. "I'm also really sorry... about before."

"Really? Because I'm not," Purple said before he started munching.

Red raised an antenna. "You aren't?"

"No, I fought with you on equal terms," Purple explained. "I lost this time, but don't expect I'll simply back down if you piss me off again."

"That seems fair I guess."

"You bet it is."

Lard Nar cleared his throat and both Tallest turned quickly to regard him. When Purple realized who it was, he glanced quickly at his partner, hoping to judge the situation appropriately. Red appeared rather subdued at the moment, so Purple stood up.

"Oh right, it's you. I nearly forgot. Weren't you supposed to be somewhere else doing something?"

"I believe your instructions were to rewrap what I used yesterday to accidentally get Ral murdered," Lard Nar replied, shooting a glare at the red Tallest. "I've done that already."

"How long have you been waiting around?" Purple questioned.

"Long enough," he said. To watch the both of you act like twits in front of the adviser, he was tempted to add but did not.

"Then go finish the assignment I gave you yesterday."

"Fine, but Grahl is gone, so you'll have no way of knowing if I'm there or not."

Purple rubbed his hand down his face and muttered something.

"I'll talk to you outside in a sec," he spoke.

Lard Nar turned and walked out into the hall, but he didn't go far. He wanted to eavesdrop as much as possible.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Red went off.

"Why the flurk didn't you zap him!?"

"He was being honest," Purple replied. "I mean, he came all the way here to tell me that Grahl wasn't there."

"So what!? I've never seen a slave, or any alien for that matter, show such disrespect towards us!"

"Isn't it great?" Purple remarked. "He doesn't give a dlark about titles or anything like that."

"But he should! He's the enemy! He's your slave! You can't keep letting him get away with things! Did you see what he was wearing!? He destroyed one of our own uniforms and turned it into... whatever the flurk that was!"

"He had my permission to do that," Purple answered. All of the technicians had lowered their heads and were fearfully listening to their Tallests argue.

"You should just kill him and be done with it!"

"He's my slave, I'll treat him how I want," Purple insisted, narrowing his eyes at his co-Tallest. "If you have a problem with the law, you can bring it up the next time we see the Control Brains."

Red quieted down a bit after Purple said this.

"S-Sirs..." the technician in charge of communications stammered. "There is a... transmission from Earth..."

"Great!" Red exclaimed tossing his hands in the air. "That's just what I need!"

Purple snickered, actually, it probably was. Nothing could make Red forget about his problems better than Zim. Unfortunately the small Irken's presence reminded Purple of everything he couldn't have, so he didn't like watching the bizarre transmissions Zim often sent them

Red on the other hand could listen to Zim's explanations of things with genuine interest.

"Alright, I'll let you handle this one," Purple said as he started hovering towards the door.

"Won't he think it's strange that you aren't with me when the transmission goes through?" Red asked.

"Naahh... Zim probably won't even notice," Purple responded, waving away his partner's worries. He stepped out of the hall and before the door could close behind him he heard "Greetings my Tallests! Err... Tallest? Where is the other Tallest!?"

Click.

Oh well. Red will think of some kind of excuse.

"So what happened to Grahl?" Lard Nar demanded. He was standing in the middle of the hallway with his arms folded across his chest.

"I don't know," Purple replied. "Maybe Red told him to do something else, and then forgot about it."

"Is he dead as well?" the former captain questioned.

"I don't think so. I've been with Red all day, so he couldn't have ordered any more deactivations."

Lard Nar blinked and clasped the side of his head, hoping to keep the flashbacks at bay.

"What's going on...?" he asked. "I couldn't remember anything about the crash up until a few days ago..."

Purple pursed his lips. "Hmm..."

"It just feels like I'm forgetting something important."

"How much do you remember?"

"A few moments before... then the hit..."

"Nothing after?" Purple pressed.

"I can only remember the fires.."

Purple was silent for a little while. "...Do you want to know what happened?"

Lard Nar hesitated. A part of him wanted to know, but another part of him was frightened of finding out the truth. "As the former captain, I feel obligated to know what exactly happened to my crew."

"And yourself as well?"

"Of course..."

"Alright, but you won't like it."

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong> Have you noticed some of the Irken 'bad words' the Tallests have been saying? Flurk means frick. Dlark/Dlamn/dlarn is damn and/or darn, and Shliza is shit. Helk is a combination of hell and heck.

Yes... they are regular words with an L stuck in there. Ha ha. I'm not that creative.

**More notes:** About what Grahl said about Lard Nar being a Vortian, I figured being anything other than Irken is offensive to Irkens. That's why he said it the way he did. I'd also like to point out Purple calls Ral "Riff-raff." He did this on purpose. He really doesn't care that the caretaker is dead, so he's joking about it.

What he really cares/worries about is Red's violent actions, not Ral's life. Poor Ral.

This was also one of the rare occasions both Tallest were acting more like they do in the show. Yes. That won't happen too often.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes:** There will be scenes of torture, character death, and violence in this chapter. Lard Nar's memories are starting to come back. Now you can finally know what happened after the Resisty's ship was shot down. Also, beware the italics used for dream-text.

* * *

><p><strong>A Haunting Dream<strong>

"_Somebody help me... gah!"_

"_Where is the captain!? Someone needs to find the.. argh!"_

_The sound of lasers firing and bodies hitting the ground were the first noises he heard when he regained consciousness. Lard Nar blinked as he slowly came out of his haze. He was lying on a pile of rubble inside the burned-out interior of his ship. He coughed on the smoke and rolled over so he could clamour to his feet._

_His first reaction was to panic. When he saw the bits and pieces of the ship's monitors, walls and ceiling lying scattered all over, his heart-beat quickened. "Spleenk?" he muttered. His throat hurt and he grimaced. "Shloonktapooxis...?"_

_The screams and shouts were coming from outside. He held his head and staggered forward. His crew was out there..._

"_We've got another live one!" someone shouted. Irken soldiers filtered in through a large hole that had been created by the impact. At least a dozen Irkens filed into the remains of the control room, and they surrounded the captain with their guns drawn._

_Lard Nar felt someone snag him by the shoulder. He tried to fight back, but he was still suffering from the shock of the crash. He felt dizzy and nauseous, and even the simplest movements were enough to throw him off balance._

"_The Tallests want this one alive," one of the Irkens spoke, and Lard Nar was shoved roughly towards the jagged hole in the ship. "Capture the rest of them! Don't shoot them all! The Tallests want some entertainment!"_

_Only three soldiers remained with Lard Nar while the rest set off to find the survivors. They were taking him to the Massive he realized. This would be his last chance to try to escape before he was killed._

"_Oof!" One of the soldiers crumpled when Lard Nar planted a well-aimed kick in his spooch area. The other two soldiers quickly moved to grab the Vortian, but Lard Nar ducked and managed to take off running. His vision began to blur._

_There were fires around him from the shrapnel of his ship, and they glowed a bleary orange. He ran only a short distance before he tripped over the corpse of one of his members. It was Spleenk, he realized much to his horror. The navigator had been shot in the head._

_He paled and nearly threw up at the sight of it, but he swallowed back his revulsion and managed to crawl to his feet. Then he heard the sound of his pursuers who were closing in on him. He felt a sharp pain in the back of his head before everything became dark._

"_Hey... boss...? Boss are you ok...?" the weak voice of Shloonktapooxis spoke through the heavy darkness. Lard Nar opened his eyes only to be greeted by more darkness. His head was aching quite badly, but he managed to prop himself up._

"_What happened...?"_

_Shloonktapooxis didn't answer right away. "We're all going to die..." he whimpered. "They did terrible things to that cloaked alien girl... and now only you, me, and Givian are alive..."_

_The other Resisty member remained silent._

"_I want to go home..." Shloonktapooxis admitted sadly. Lard Nar could hear the tears in his voice, and it made the captain both upset and angry._

"_When we are about to be executed Shloonktapooxis...don't show them any fear," Lard Nar told his crying friend. "It will make them angry to think that they weren't able to break us. We have to resist them until the very end. Do you understand?"_

"_Uh huh," Shloonktapooxis sniffled._

_The door whirred open and light spilled in. Lard Nar shielded his eyes as the Irken soldiers came in. They grabbed hold of Givian who let out a frightened cry as they hauled him out._

_Lard Nar watched them approach, and he growled in defiance. He wasn't going to go willingly. When they reached for him, he lashed out and caught one of the Irkens in the face. The startled soldier reeled back and clasped his injured jaw while his partner jabbed a shock stick into the Vortian's side._

_The captain collapsed and ground his teeth in pain. The Irkens snagged him by both arms and dragged him out of the room. From behind him, he heard Shloonktapooxis wailing. "Remember what I said!" he shouted to his companion._

_This was it; their final moments alive. It was also their last chance to resist the Empire._

_He couldn't show his enemies any fear. He had to be strong._

_The Irken soldiers forced them into a brightly lit room. There were a couple metal tables with straps hanging off them. One of these tables was covered in dark purple blood._

_Lard Nar was dragged towards one of them with enough force to nearly dislocate his shoulder. Givian was the first to be strapped down. Almost instantly the civilian turned rebel began begging for his life. He brought up his family; that he had a wife and an unborn child. The Irkens didn't care._

"_Wait, let the Vortian watch," the soldier standing behind the captain said chortling to himself._

_The other soldiers agreed, and they held Lard Nar in place, forcing him to watch as a guard came into the room with all sorts of different implements. The large Irken first took out a small laser and used it to burn the alien's flesh. Givian screamed and fought against his restraints before he began muttering 'no' over and over again._

_It was sad to watch, but the Irken soldiers wouldn't allow Lard Nar to look away. The smell of burning skin made Lard Nar bite his tongue as he tried to keep himself from getting sick. Over Givian's cries, he heard the door open and the soldiers shoved Shloonktapooxis into the room._

"_Don't kill them too fast," one of the soldiers spoke. "Remember, the Tallests are watching."_

_Where were Irk's leaders...? Lard Nar glanced around the room. He noticed a mirror on the opposite wall. That could be it..._

_WHACK_

_Blood dribbled down the side of his head. Lard Nar cursed under his breath._

"_Pay attention!" a soldier demanded. "Remember, you're next."_

"_Bite me Irken scum!" Lard Nar snapped. He was going to die anyway, so he might as well let them get an antennae full. "Just wait until you've angered enough people! Then you'll see! One day all of you will be standing in line for execution!"_

_Another blow to the head got him to stop._

"_Boss, are you ok...?" Shloonktapooxis asked worriedly._

"_Fan-bloody-tastic..." Lard Nar muttered._

"_PLEASE STOP!" Givian hollered. Tears were streaming down his face. The guard had abandoned the small laser in favour of a regular sharpened blade. The large Irken began cutting into the alien's mid-section without any reaction to the cries of agony or painful squirming. Blood began spurting out. "I BEG YOU!"_

_Lard Nar flinched and bit his lip. This was too much... there had to be a way to stop it. Clenching his teeth, he suddenly jumped backwards, bashing the soldier behind him in the face with his horns. The Irken yelped and crashed to the floor._

"_Ahh dlarn it..." Lard Nar remarked clutching his head with both hands. He was grabbed by two other soldiers who began beating him into submission._

"_Boss!" Shloonktapooxxis yelled, mustering up whatever courage he could find to slip out of his captor's grasp and rush to his captain's aide._

_ZZZT!_

_A soldier fired a high-powered gun, and Shloonktapooxis fell to the floor dead._

_Lard Nar didn't see it happen because he was busy trying to fend off the Irken's blows, but he heard everything. His heart froze at that moment, and his whole body became numb. This was really the end... the resistance never had a chance._

_Before he knew what was happening, the Irkens had hauled him back to his feet and they began leading him towards the bloody table. They strapped his arms and legs down so he couldn't move while Givian continued to bawl and shriek._

_His mind began to think much faster than he could keep up; flashbacks, possible ways to escape, his friend's lifeless body lying on the floor, and of course he could picture the Tallests laughing at his desperate situation._

_'Lard Nar...' the captain blinked. The voice sounded so real... but he knew he must be imagining it. There were no females in the room._

_'If you do not find favour with the present Tallest, you can always mention one from the past.'_

_The Vortian bit his lip. Miyuki had told him that a long time ago._

"_I hope the ghost of Tallest Miyuki returns to smite you all..." Lard Nar growled bitterly. One of the guards struck him again. "How dare you speak our previous Tallest's name Vermin!" But the guard looked a bit surprised... to use the former Tallest's name reminded him that Irk and Vort had been allies until not long ago._

_Yet nothing but the current Tallests' orders could stop what they were about to do._

_Another soldier crammed something into Lard Nar's mouth, so he wouldn't be able to say anything else, or scream._

_Givian's cries had stopped. Lard Nar tried to turn his head to see if his poor comrade was dead, but the restrains around his neck kept him in place. His whole body started to tremble as his eyes watched the guard approach him with the same instruments that were used on Givian._

_Oh dear Vort... he didn't want to remember... he didn't want to remember what happened._

Flick.

"What the...?" Lard Nar's eyes snapped open when he felt something tap his forehead.

"At least you're easy to wake up," Purple mumbled sleepily. The Tallest rubbed one of his eyes and yawned. "You woke me up easily enough..."

The former captain of the Resisty sat up quickly and brought the rejected clothing around him like a blanket. His heart was pounding in his chest from the dream, and his eyes widened when he saw the Tallest so close. He recoiled in revulsion.

Purple blinked. "Well... ok then. I'm going back to sleep." He stood up off the floor.

"For an Irken, you sleep quite a lot..." Lard Nar muttered.

The Tallest smirked. "I'm the Tallest, so I can do whatever I want."

"Do you dream?"

"Of course."

Lard Nar clutched the garment tighter. "...What do you dream about?"

"Not what you're dreaming about, that's for sure," Purple replied in a roundabout way. "Maybe I shouldn't have told you about the torture." He rubbed the back of his head. "I mean, your leg was almost completely severed... that would be enough to freak anyone out."

"I said I wanted to know..." Lard Nar grumbled, turning his back to the Tallest. "I'm going back to sleep."

"Fine fine," Purple replied. He yawned again. "Try not to wake me up this time."

"You drugged me didn't you?" Lard Nar suddenly asked, frowning. "After I was tortured?"

"Yes... why are you asking this now?"

"What else did you do?"

"Other than having your leg patched up, stopping the bleeding, and getting you back to your current condition, nothing," Purple responded. "There was no brainwashing, force feeding, poison injection, organ removal, or anything you might be thinking." The Tallest scowled at the Vortian lying huddled under his desk. "You should at least look at me when you talk to me."

"I don't think I can at the moment," Lard Nar admitted wearily. "Shock me if it makes you feel better, but I can't look you in the eyes. Not right now..."

Purple thought about this quietly for a while. He sighed and crouched down so that he could see Lard Nar better. "Lard Nar..." Purple's voice was cool and void of emotion. "Look at me. This is not a request."

Compelled by the Tallest's strong words, the former captain lifted his head and managed to meet eyes with Purple. He expected to see this distrust reflected in the Tallest's expression, but instead he saw only concern.

"I can't say I'm sorry for what I did to you or your crew, because I'm not sorry at all," Purple told him firmly. "You lost and we won. It was fair play, but you are still a player. You have another chance to win. Do you understand?"

Lard Nar stared at him. "But in order for me to win, you would have to lose."

"And if or when that time comes, I will accept my defeat," Purple responded sounding every bit as serious as he looked. Having said his piece, the Tallest stood up and simply crawled back into bed. The room became quiet, and Lard Nar was left to muse over the Tallest's words.

His mind fought to stay awake, but the nightmare left him feeling exhausted. No, that hadn't been just a nightmare... those were memories coming back to him. He curled closer to himself and shut his eyes. The Irkens had hurt him quite badly.

He didn't want to remember.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's notes:** Hello again. I do read over all the reviews I get, and I've noticed a few people seem to want to play whack-a-mole with Purple's face. So thank you for giving me a reason to say 'whack-a-mole.' Heh heh.

Anyway, here's another chapter. Updates will remain as they are. Extremely sporadic.

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><p><strong>Helping Grahl<strong>

It took eight days for him to finish organizing the snack chamber. He wondered if the Tallests would notice the Irken symbols he'd slipped in to show his displeasure. This was the reason why Ral had been so watchful, but Grahl either didn't notice the display or he just didn't say anything about it.

The small Irken always stood by the doors as though he was there to make sure Lard Nar didn't leave. Of course the Vortian left multiple times during his task without getting stopped. There wasn't much Grahl could do to stop him, and the Irken seemed to know this.

"Well I'm done," Lard Nar spoke through the quiet. It had become less uneasy now that he knew Grahl simply didn't talk much.

The Irken took a quick look around and nodded once to show his approval.

"Then I'll be leaving," Lard Nar said, walking past the sullen and rather ineffective 'guard.'

Much to his surprise, Grahl followed him out into the hallway and continued to stay a few steps behind as he made his way to the elevator platform.

"What are you doing?" Lard Nar asked without bothering to look at the Irken.

"I-I haven't been dismissed yet sir..."

Lard Nar sighed. "So you're going to keep following me then?"

"Tallest Purple took over as my commander... b-but he said it was up to you to dismiss me..."

"Why would he do that?" Lard Nar asked frowning.

"I-I don't know sir..."

"Ok...You can go then," Lard Nar told him, stepping onto the platform. The Irken stopped walking and kept his eyes lowered as the elevator rose. He didn't move at all.

Lard Nar tried really hard to leave, but he couldn't do it. Instead he took the platform back down and studied the quiet Irken with his arms crossed. "I have a quick question for you," he began. The Irken didn't move. "What are you supposed to do now?"

"I-I'm not sure... the Control Brains coded me... but none of the programs worked..."

"What were you doing before you started your "guarding" assignment?"

Grahl rubbed one of his wrists nervously. "I-I was kept as a-a spare sir..."

"A spare?" Lard Nar enquired, hoping to urge the Irken to keep talking.

"Y-yes.. my Pak d-doesn't store information very well... I don't have the skills to be anything... so... I-I'm a spare."

"I don't think I'quite understand what you mean by that..."

"I-If my Pak was hooked up... it would say nothing... like it was blank... so I can't be anything else sir... there is no data storage... the... the only thing my Pak was able to keep was m-my personality... and of course the vital functions of life..."

"And words it seems..."

"Not at first... but yes... now I have words..."

"And this can't be fixed?"

"I don't know sir... my Tallests told me I was a burden on the Empire... I-I should feel lucky they've kept me alive this long."

"Call me Lard Nar," the former captain insisted. "And I'm sure there are plenty of Vortians that would know a thing or two about fixing an Irken's Pak. If you want I can call one of them up."

Grahl slowly shook his head. "Thank you sir... but I've already accepted..."

"I insist," Lard Nar spoke taking him forcefully by the arm and hauling him onto the elevator platform. "And since you have nothing else to do, you can continue to guard me why not."

"I don't have any monies sir..."

"That shouldn't be a problem for you. Vort is Irken property now."

"Yes but... the guards... and what w-would the Tallest say?"

There was only one way to find out the answer to that question.

"You want to do what?" Purple asked, pausing from his current activity. He had been drifting through the hallway drinking a slushie when the Vortian approached him and boldly made the request.

"I said I want to contact one of my former partners."

"Hrm... well on my end, that has 'bad idea' written all over it," Purple told the former captain.

"I wouldn't be asking if you hadn't left Grahl with a malfunctioning Pak," Lard Nar insisted, gesturing at the Irken who was watching from a 'safe' distance away.

"He's not worth the trouble," Purple stated shrugging his shoulders. "He can be replaced easily enough, especially since he has no skills. I mean he isn't even coded as anything. All he does is stand around... actually, I think Red was talking about turning him into a living billboard sign."

Grahl winced when he heard what his leaders planned to do with him. Malfunctioning or not, he still wanted to be useful to the Empire...

"You've got to be kidding me," Lard Nar spoke through clenched teeth. How the Tallests could be so uncaring towards their own people was beyond him.

"Nope, I'm serious," Purple remarked before taking another slurp of his slushie. "Besides, you'd probably end up stabbing me in the back. Who knows what you'll start planning if I let you talk to other Vortians."

Lard Nar couldn't deny the possibility of that happening.

"So... that's a no on two accounts slave, unless you have a good argument for me."

Again with the slave comment. Lard Nar breathed a sigh. "My argument requires a measure of sympathy, and since you have none, I guess I'm finished here."

The corner of Purple's mouth twitched. "Oh, and saving you was me being all tyrannical and evil then?"

Sometimes Lard Nar forgot the purple Tallest had saved his life; especially when he was getting ordered around and zapped by the stupid metal collar around his neck.

"I find it hard to be grateful in this kind of circumstance," Lard Nar told him, motioning to the collar. He turned to Grahl who was watching them nervously. The Irken kept his eyes fixated on the ground as he fiddled with his hands.

"Tell me who you want to contact," Purple said.

Lard Nar returned his level stare to the Tallest. "You call him Prisoner 777."

"I will speak with him about it," Purple decided. That was the closest Lard Nar was going to get to communicating with anyone on Vort. The former captain nodded in agreement. He hadn't actually expected Purple to bend this much to his request anyway.

The Tallest returned to the control room, and Lard Nar continued to wander through the hallways with Grahl trailing behind.

"Sometimes you just have to ask and find out," Lard Nar said to the Irken who nodded quietly in reply. The former captain glanced back at him. "Is something wrong?"

"N-No... I just... I've never seen someone... who was able to talk... so well... I mean... with the Tallest..." Grahl admitted.

"Well I am a slave; I can't get much lower than that, and my tolerance for pain is only going to increase with each shock he gives me," Lard Nar reasoned.

"But... he could kill you..." Grahl reminded the Vortian.

"If he was going to kill me, he would have done it by now."

"And... torture...?"

"I've been through it already... I think. I don't really remember... besides, if he was going to torture me," more than he already is, he was tempted to add, "he would have done that by now too."

"Wow..." Grahl's eyes widened a little. "I-I wish I had your confidence sir..."

Lard Nar wondered if he would have as much confidence as he did if he could remember everything that happened to him. He shook his head. Musing about it wasn't going to help him now. "You'll probably feel more confident when your Pak is fixed."

"I-I hope so..." Grahl murmured.

"You better go," Lard Nar suddenly told him. He'd spotted another Irken staring at him and Grahl. Of course it could be explained away as some sort of assignment, but the former captain thought it would be best for Grahl if they weren't seen together, especially since the timid Irken happened to be following a Vortian slave around like a lost animal.

"I'll meet with you outside of Purple's room in three cycles to let you know the verdict."

"Y-Yes sir..." Grahl replied as he turned around and began walking away.

"Well?" Lard Nar pressed. Purple yawned as the door slid shut behind him. He produced the designs, which were on digital tablets, from behind his back and held them out for the Vortian.

"Piece of cake," Purple replied. "Only... there is a thirty nine percent chance of fatality and a sixty seven percent chance of irreversible motor or personality damage."

"Hmm..." Lard Nar took the tablets, studying both the statistics and the designs for the Irken Pak. "There is something to erase the current data... then replacing it with the non-corrupted programming, but isn't there a way just to erase the corrupted data so Grahl won't lose who he is?"

Purple held up his hands in mock-defence. "I just gave you what the other Vortian gave me. I don't know anything about our Paks, other than we need them to live, and they can hold weapons and stuff."

They both became quiet for a moment. Lard Nar continued to read what he had over and over again while Purple watched. The Tallest folded his hands behind his back, waiting for the opportune time to speak.

"Is there any reason you want to help Grahl specifically?" he asked after a while.

Lard Nar kept quiet, so Purple continued to ponder out-loud. "I mean it is pretty sudden, and he is one of your enemies isn't he? Helk, we're all your enemies."

"Look Purple," Lard Nar spoke, forcing his words out. "Attacking and killing someone who is readily willing to kill you is much different than accidentally killing someone who happened to be an idiot, but who was still a living breathing creature."

Purple blinked. "So this is more about Ral then? Why?"

"I don't know," Lard Nar sighed. "Maybe being your slave is slowly driving me crazy."

There was a knock at the door. Lard Nar went to answer it, expecting it to be Grahl.

He was surprised to see a different Irken standing there instead.

"Um... is Tallest Purple...?" the Irken began, looking around the hallway nervously.

"Right here," Purple responded, coming up from behind Lard Nar and muffling another yawn.

"One of your guards was beaten quite badly sir... I think his name is Grahl? He told me he had been doing an assignment for you before he passed out."

Lard Nar was frozen. He couldn't believe it.

"Yeah, he was guarding this guy," Purple remarked, nodding at Lard Nar. "I think I dismissed him not long ago. Why was he beaten?"

"Yes... well... one of the soldiers did it... and now... I believe he is dying sir."

"But why was Grahl beaten?"

"Because one of the food service drones saw him with the Vortian... and when Red overheard this he got... well... pretty angry. He ordered one of his soldiers to beat Grahl."

Purple let out a sigh and held his forehead. "Even though HE was the one who originally assigned Grahl? His logic makes no sense to me."

"That concludes my report sir."

"Thanks... whoever you are. You're dismissed."The Irken saluted his Tallest before turning around and walking down the hall. The door slid shut, and Purple glanced down at Lard Nar.

"You sure are quiet," Purple commented. "Don't worry about it. One more dead drone doesn't really make a difference."

Lard Nar allowed his tense muscles to relax. He hated this place. He really did.

Purple studied the Vortian for a moment before letting out another sigh. "He isn't dead yet."

"There is no medical facility on board this ship..." Lard Nar muttered. "He might as well be dead since he won't be getting any treatment."

Purple reflected over this and made a thoughtful 'hnn' sound. "Well... I'll track him down anyway. You stay here and wait for me to come back. If Red is in one of his moods, no one will be safe, especially the short ones."

"What if he attacks you again?" Lard Nar questioned.

"Why? You worried?" Purple asked in a cheeky manner as he left the room.

"That brat..." Lard Nar growled as he continued to stare at the close door. He wasn't supposed to leave the room. It could be dangerous. Was Purple comparing him to a smeet!? He could defend himself just fine.

At least... that's what he wanted to believe.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong> Ah Red. He's going off the deep end because of a Vortian. He didn't even remember assigning Grahl. Oops. Also, Lard Nar has a bit of stockholm syndrome going on. So there you go.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Notes/Warning:** Character Death. You have been warned. Things are getting more serious... I do not own Invader Zim. Be glad I don't.

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><p><strong>The Unforgivable Crime<strong>

Purple didn't bring up Grahl after that day. Lard Nar tried to ask him many times what happened to the spare Irken guard, but the Tallest wouldn't answer this question. After a while, the former Captain of the Resisty allowed the matter to drop. Grahl was dead. There was nothing he could do about it now.

The nightmares of his crew's horrible deaths plagued him every night after Grahl's disappearance.

Purple complained that he was being too loud, but the Tallest didn't shock him for this. Instead, Purple seemed anxious, and he would often wake Lard Nar in the middle of these nightmares.

"If you want me to wipe your memory of that incident..." Purple began, sounding unsure. He was crouching next to the desk having woken his slave from another fitful sleep.

"It's not me I'm bloody dreaming about!" Lard Nar snapped, wincing when the throbbing in his head worsened. "I'm... my crew... I'm dreaming about my freaken crew!" He sat up and grasped his head. Focusing on the pain would keep him from crying about their deaths.

"Ok..." Purple's antennae fell back. "Then... why don't you tell me about your crew?"

"Like you'd bloody care."

"I don't, but if it will help you get over their deaths, I'll care enough to at least pretend to be interested."

The Tallest sat down on the floor and turned so he could lean a bit against the desk.

"I don't understand... why do you do this?" Lard Nar murmured quietly.

"Because I can," Purple responded shrugging his shoulders. "I don't understand why aliens get so emotional over someone dying."

"Don't you ever miss those who are gone?"

Purple thought about this for a little while. "Yes," he responded, letting out a sigh. "I miss Tallest Miyuki. But she's dead. There is no reason to get upset over her death. We're made to fight, kill, then die. It's the natural order of things."

"I guess you'd have to be insensitive to death then... because you surround yourselves with it."

"I know it's there and I recognize it for what it is, but the dead should not affect the life of the living. What would the point in their deaths be then? Wouldn't it just be pointless? Our soldiers died doing their duty. They fought for the betterment of the Empire. They did not fight for us to be sad or upset by their deaths."

Lard Nar paused. "You know..." he began staring at the Tallest, a bit surprised. "Even though you sounded pretty insensitive... you were kind of philosophical there for a minute."

"Shocking, I know," Purple chuckled. He stopped and turned his head a bit so he could look at Lard Nar, a smile on his face. "... I haven't really spoken like this to anyone before... not even Red."

"Well... I never thought I'd get the chance to speak to you like this... I mean, I never imagined you were anything other than an evil tyrant."

"Yes, well, as fun as it is being nice every once and a while, I don't think I'd be able to do it all the time," Purple admitted. "It just isn't me."

"Are you saying you're naturally bad-tempered?"

"No, that's Red's department."

"It's not that difficult to be nice."

"It's not how I was raised," Purple's smile turned into a smirk. "Just like how you weren't raised to be a heartless killing machine."

Lard Nar scowled. "Anyone can become a killer, but a killer can never become a non-killer. Once you kill someone, your hands are stained forever."

"Yeah," Purple agreed. "I guess I'll always be a killer."

"And I'll always have the potential to become one until I kill something."

"Or until you die. You can't kill anyone when you're dead."

"You are the last person I want to talk about my death, thank you very much."

Purple snickered.

"It's not funny."

"You make me laugh," Purple brushed his antennae back. "Do you really think I'd kill you now? After everything I've gone through to keep you alive? If you up and died all of a sudden I'd be pretty ticked off actually."

"Well you do have pretty terrible mood-swings," Lard Nar pointed out.

"I've never killed anyone when I was moody."

"How about that badly injured technician you kicked into the hallway?"

"He would have died regardless."

"Really?" Lard Nar questioned raising an invisible brow. He wasn't entirely convinced.

"Yes really. There are no medics remember? All we have are ship repair drones, technicians, janitorial drones, and food service drones... and sometimes invaders that have done their jobs and are waiting to be reassigned."

"Why don't you have medics?"

"This is your sixth question tonight," Purple remarked breathing a sigh.

"You don't have to count."

"Red got sick once..." Purple began. "The medics tried to help him, but he ended up getting angry. Most of them were just demoted, but none of them are here on the Massive anymore."

"How did he get sick?"

Purple shrugged his shoulders. "He's just weird like that."

"I didn't think your kind could get sick."

"We make it much more difficult for ourselves to become sick, but that doesn't mean we're completely immune to everything," Purple explained. "Dying from an illness is unheard of, just so you don't get any ideas."

"Purple... do you really think I still want to kill you?"

The Tallest sighed. "I don't know... Red and I ordered your ship to be shot down, and your crew to be killed, and some of them were tortured to death. We also tortured you. If I was in your place, I'd want me dead."

Lard Nar smirked. "Am I detecting a hint of empathy?"

"And you smile? Aliens really are confusing. I thought the memories of your dying crew gave you nightmares and made you freak out."

"This isn't a smile," Lard Nar said. Purple gave him a questioning look.

"Ok you're right... it is, but it's a sly smile. There is a difference..." his smile vanished completely as his eyes fell to the floor. "You know I could never be happy about this... my crew was... they were good people. It's hard for me to picture you as you are right now watching them die like that... I mean Givian... he was screaming and..."

"It would be easy for me to put that all on Red, but the truth was, I went along with it. I watched everything from the start."

"Why did you save me?" Lard Nar asked, fighting back his tears. "Why did you only save me? Why couldn't you have helped Givian or Shloonktapooxis?"

"They weren't former allies Lard Nar. You being a Vortian pretty much saved your life. Even then, I wouldn't have helped you if you hadn't mentioned Tallest Miyuki."

"She told me to... a long time ago she told me that mentioning her name, or a past Tallest's name, might help... I wonder how she knew."

The Tallest noted the conflicted expression on the Vortian's face. A part of him wished to reveal everything that was supposed to be kept secret, but instead he simply changed the subject. "I sometimes wonder what life would be like without this wonderful arrangement of emotions constantly hounding us..."

"I don't know..." Lard Nar sighed. "Why don't you tell me?"

"I have emotions just as much as you do."

"Irken's have emotions?" Lard Nar asked, although Purple assumed from the tone of his voice that the Vortian wasn't being entirely serious. "Really?"

"Oh, ha ha... You really are a rude alien. Maybe I let you get away with too much."

"I've been told I'm a rather nice guy actually," Lard Nar defended himself.

"I'm sure you are when you aren't being forced into slavery," Purple consented as he slowly stood up off the ground. "If it makes you feel any better, I've decided to let you go."

Lard Nar froze, and he stared at the Tallest unable to speak for a moment. This was too unbelievable. The Tallest had to be lying. "When did you decide...?"

"You're acting like I planned your execution date instead of your release," Purple remarked sounding a little disappointed. "I thought you would be thrilled."

"You're serious?"

"Of course."

"When can I leave?"

"How does tomorrow morning sound? I'll get Grahl to escort you to the escape pods. From there you can fly anywhere you want."

Lard Nar could hardly breathe. The Tallest was letting him leave! He could go and... and... start another resistance? Try to kill the Tallests? Stupid moral dilemmas! Oh well it didn't matter. He would be free at the very least.

And Grahl was alive... The Irken guard had survived after all. Why did Purple allow him to believe the Irken guard was dead? It was a relief anyway.

"Thanks Purple," Lard Nar said.

"Can't you call me the Tallest at least once?" Purple questioned.

"Never in your life."

"Oh fine..."

The Tallest slowly got to his feet, and he stretched a bit. "I'm going to sleep, so don't wake me up before morning or I might change my mind and keep you here forever."

"I guess it couldn't hurt to be quiet for one night."

"Good," Purple spoke as he hovered over to his bed. "I'll see you in the morning then."

Lard Nar yawned and curled up under his make shift blanket. He was excited about the idea of gaining his freedom, but he was also feeling tired. Maybe he should stay up, he thought to himself. If he drifted off to sleep and had a nightmare, Purple might wake up and decide not to let him go.

It wasn't long before fatigue won out and he fell asleep.

Lard Nar stirred from his sleep. His body felt heavy and he didn't really want to open his eyes, but when he remembered the conversation he had with Purple the night before, he became fully awake. Blinking, he turned his head a little so he could see if the Tallest was still in bed, and he was.

Of course Purple was going to sleep in on the day he promised to give him freedom. The whole thing was probably some kind of sick joke… but still, he had to try.

The former captain of the Resisty crawled out from under the desk and stood up, stretching his arms over his head. He had never gotten fully used to sleeping on the floor. Every morning he woke up feeling sore and stiff.

"So are you planning to sleep all day?" he asked Purple in a loud voice.

The Tallest didn't stir. That was odd. Purple wasn't really a heavy sleeper. Irkens didn't even need sleep from what he understood.

Lard Nar drew closer to the bed until he was almost touching it. Purple's face had turned a sickly pale colour. The Vortian poked the Tallest's arm. "Purple?" he questioned sounding unsure. He gave Purple's arm a shake, but the Tallest remained lifeless… almost as though he was really… dead. He leaned in a bit closer so he could listen for the sounds of breathing.

There were none.

It just wasn't possible. Lard Nar grabbed the blanket covering most of the Tallest and pulled it off. There were no visible stab wounds or laser marks. Purple always slept in his armour, which was kind of strange because it looked rather uncomfortable to sleep in.

"Ok. This joke isn't funny," he said, giving Purple's arm another shake. "Wake up."

There was only one other thing that could be wrong; it was the object all Irkens needed for living. He checked for Purple's pak, but it was gone. How could it be gone? Paks didn't just fall off!

Just in case his assumption was wrong, he checked under the bed. "Ok… this is ridiculous," he told himself, running a hand down his face. "Just calm down… think… what can I do? I need to get help." Maybe the other Tallest would know what to do.

As he turned towards the door, it suddenly opened. He stared wide-eyed as the red Tallest came in. Red paused when he saw his partner's lifeless body, and his eyes narrowed.

"What happened in here?!" he demanded, looking down at the Vortian. There was a dangerous quality in his voice. It made Lard Nar nervous, and he quaked a little when those accusing ruby eyes locked onto him.

"I don't know," Lard Nar said, too shocked to remember what was wrong. Then he remembered.. "It's his pak, it's gone."

"It's gone?" Red's antennae flattened against his head. "You mean my fellow Tallest is dead?! He's dead and you were the last one to see him alive!"

"He was fine before I fell asleep," Lard Nar was quick to defend himself. "He was like this when I woke up."

"Well isn't that convenient for you…" Red growled. "Do you want to know what I think, you arrogant piece of Vortian trash? I think you killed him! You killed him in the middle of the night, and you still have the audacity to lie to my face!" The Tallest tightened his hands into fists. "I knew you would be trouble. I tried to tell Purple, but he wouldn't listen. He thought you were harmless and just look at what happened!

"I didn't kill him!" Lard Nar snapped. He didn't even think when he blurted out, "I had no reason to kill him!" Red wouldn't have known about the conversation he and Purple had the night before. Even if the other Tallest had known, Lard Nar doubted it would matter much.

"You are a rebel! You hate both me and Purple, it's no big secret! You want us both dead!" Red hollered before turning to the open door. "Guards! Arrest this murderer!"

Lard Nar took a few uneasy steps backwards. He recognized that terrible look in the red Tallest's face, although he couldn't remember when he had seen it. Whatever had happened to him before was goingto happen again. He swallowed. His heartbeat quickened, he could hear it throbbing in his chest. He wanted to run, but there was nowhere he could go.

"Don't do this…" Lard Nar spoke through clenched teeth. "Purple wouldn't have wanted you to do this…"

"Purple is dead," Red reminded him with a frightening glare. "You killed him, so you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make you beg for your life. You'll beg and beg until you can't breathe anymore. Then I'll kill you."

There was no escape. Lard Nar's eyes widened when the Irken guards trailed into the room with their shock sticks and sickles ready. He clenched his hands into tight fists to keep them from trembling. He couldn't show fear. He couldn't… what would his crew think of him? Oh Vort… was he crying?

Red smirked. "Take him to the torture chamber."

No! He wanted to scream, but no words came. Two of the guards came forward and grabbed him by the arms. He turned his head to look at Purple one last time. The Tallest was dead… this had to be a nightmare.

There was no one who could rescue him now.

* * *

><p><strong>More Notes:<strong> Um... yeah. Paks generally don't just fall off. Someone had to have done that deliberately. Still, when you're panicking, I mean a lot of stuff does end up under the bed. It couldn't hurt to look.

Apparently it does hurt to fail though. More pain, torture, and general unpleasantness in the next chapter. I'm warning you for serious.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Notes:** If the torture in the previous chapter didn't scare you, I don't think this torture will either, but I'm going to warn you anyway. Blood, pain, near death experiences, and gore ect are in this chapter, so continue with caution. There is a time skip if that helps at all.

I did not want to change the rating on this fic to anything higher than T.

* * *

><p><strong>The Horrible Plot<strong>

Lard Nar had never been so sure of anything in his life. He had not been the one to kill Purple. Someone else had to have snuck into the room while he and Purple were sleeping… but the red Tallest wouldn't listen.

The gag in his mouth kept him from talking. He couldn't move his arms or legs. They had chained him to one of the hard metal tables, only his hands were stretched up more over his head. It was an uncomfortable position, and the level of discomfort was only going to increase.

His silent pleas wouldn't be answered. He knew this, so he kept his eyes fixated on the ceiling as he tried to ignore the movement around him. Voices were whispering. He could hear the sneers of some of the guards before they left the room, leaving the torturer to do his work. The red Tallest was probably watching from behind the two way mirror. Unlike Purple, Red wasn't going to show any compassion. In fact, the torture was going to probably drag out as long as possible before his misery was finally ended.

The torturer approached him with a small energy knife. With a smirk, the Irken began to cut his victims clothes from his body. Lard Nar winced each time the blade made contact with his skin. His mind was racing. He was already struggling for breath. The last thing to be removed was the collar. Lard Nar had always seen it as a degrading thing, only now did he view it as an object of protection.

"When I'm through with you…" the torturer spoke in a gruff voice as he picked up a different instrument; the one used for causing burns. "You'll wish you'd never joined any rebel group. You'll regret ever harming our Tallest Purple."

The first flash of pain came when the energy beam travelled over his arm. He wrenched against his binds and shut his eyes tight. He could hear his skin sizzling from the burns.

After a while of inflicting this kind of pain, the torturer decided to take a break from burning. He placed the object down and grabbed a hold of one of the Vortians fingers.

Snap.

Lard Nar screamed silently because of the gag, and he began to struggle in vain against his bonds.

Snap. Another finger was broken. Pain burned up his hand, as he heard more cracks. Tears flooded his vision as he tried to remain staring at the ceiling. He bit his tongue, but that did nothing to mask the pain in his now crushed hand which had been broken in several places.

"This is only the beginning," the guard told him, patting him on the head like an animal. "You'll see."

* * *

><p>Grahl huffed as he ran through the hallway with Purple's pak in his arms. The other Irkens standing around watched him curiously until he vanished from their sights. It had taken Grahl some time to track down his commander's Pak. It had been, out of all the places it could have possibly been, in Tallest Red's room.<p>

No one ever dared to go into Red's room, but Grahl did; only because he knew his other Tallest was currently preoccupied. Now he was rushing to save his leader from certain death, or so he hoped. Once the countdown had been completed, he knew death always followed. He just couldn't bring himself to believe that one of his Tallests had died.

"Sir sir!" he called as he rushed into Purple's room. "I found it!"

He hurried over to the bed and carefully lowered the pak on the floor so he could move Purple into a better position. Then he picked up the device and reattached it to the Tallest's back.

At first there was no movement from the Tallest. Purple appeared as dead with his pak on as he did with it off… but then he let out a moan.

"W-what happ'n?" Purple croaked as his eyes blinked open.

"Sir! You're alive!" Grahl exclaimed happily. "I don't know how, but you're alive!"

"What…?" Purple couldn't move his body. It would take a while for his pak to fully respond to its host. "I don't… 'memer… anything…"

"I was passing by your room last night when I saw someone leave your room sir… I believe it was Tallest Red. Then this morning when I heard your Pak was missing, I immediately set out to find it."

"My Pak…?" Purple mumbled closing his eyes and breathing a sigh. "Why would…?"

"Just rest my Tallest," Grahl said. "You need to recover your strength."

Purple gave in to his exhaustion and fell asleep while Grahl positioned himself in front of his Tallest's door. He wasn't going to let anyone near Purple if he could help it.

* * *

><p>It was two days later when Purple woke feeling completely recharged and nearly back to normal. He had some dizziness when he first got up, but that quickly subsided. He looked around the room and noticed Lard Nar wasn't there. His antennae fell back and his eyes narrowed. What the flurk was going on?<p>

He didn't bother turning on his hover-belt. He was angry, and walking in long angry strides seemed the most fitting way to confront the other Tallest. "Where is Red?" he asked Grahl when he stepped out into the hallway. The Irken had been guarding the door and refused to leave until his Tallest had recovered.

"Sir," Grahl saluted him. "He is in the torture chamber sir."

"Why is he in there?"

"He blamed your death on the Vortian slave sir, so he is currently having him tortured."

"Why didn't you stop him!?" Purple snapped, wrenching the smaller Irken off the floor.

"Please forgive me my Tallest," Grahl spoke. "But his life in comparison to your life is nothing... and uh... I can't argue with a Tallest...I'm not tall enough..."

"That Vortian saved your freaken life, yet you would leave him to die in the most brutal way imaginable?" Purple questioned in disbelief. And Lard Nar wondered why he threw drones out of airlocks and kicked them when they were dying.

He dropped Grahl and began walking towards the torture chamber. It was on one of the lower levels. Purple's walk turned into a jog and then into a run. He was tripping on his uniform a lot, so he paused for a moment to tear a nice long strip out, freeing his legs. Then he started running again.

"Oh Shliza… shliza… dlark it all!" he swore out loud. He was panting already, and his legs felt heavy, but he wasn't going to turn his hover belt on. Actually, right now it was weighing him down more than anything. As he was running, he gripped the belt and tore it off. It landed far behind him, and he kept going.

None of the Irkens questioned why their Tallest was in such a hurry. All of them quickly got out of his way so they wouldn't be hit or run over. Purple took one of the elevators all the way down. He continued at a more deliberate pace when he saw the large metal doors which led into the torture chamber.

It had been two days, yet the torture was still going on. He braced himself for what he was going to see. For all he knew, Lard Nar was already dead, but he wasn't going to give up until he knew for sure, and even then there would be repercussions. Red was not going to get away with this.

When the doors slid open, the torturer stopped what he was doing long enough to glance over his shoulder. The furious lavender eyes of the second Tallest was the last thing he saw before everything became black. His body crumpled to the ground, and the blunt object in his hand clattered noisily on the tiles. There was blood everywhere.

Purple recoiled when he saw the red liquid covering his hands. Sucking in a breath, he closed his eyes and reached to undo the clasps binding Lard Nar's wrists and legs. Everything was hot to the touch, especially the metal. The room was stifling… it was difficult to breathe.

"I'm really sorry about this..." Purple whispered. "You have no idea..."

The Vortian appeared to be unconscious, but that wasn't really surprising. Purple had no idea how such a small creature could bleed so much. There was a large gash that cut the Vortian's mid-section wide open, and this was where most of the blood was coming from. One of his horns had been snapped in half, and blood was coming from there as well.

"Purple?" Red stepped into the room. He had been watching from the two-way mirror. "You're alive! This is great."

"Shut up!" Purple snapped, barring his teeth and flattening his antennae in an almost primeval fashion. "You... I don't want you near me! You nearly killed me and for what!? Petty revenge!?"

"Purple... I didn't mean to kill you... I was going to have your pak returned, honest..."

"I don't give a flurk!" Purple shouted. "Stay away from me! Stay away or I'll hurt you worse than you've ever been hurt before, so help me..." He extended his pak-legs and pointed them threateningly at his partner. Red raised his hands and backed himself against the wall. Not even the somewhat unstable Tallest who was prone to violent mood-swings felt confident enough to take on Purple in his full rage.

"Ok... we'll talk later..." Red agreed as he carefully moved towards the exit.

"I need sedatives..." Purple realized quickly after analyzing Lard Nar's desperate condition. His pak legs retracted.

Once the Vortian's arms and legs were free, he set to work gathering the materials he would need to fix broken bones and seal off the separated flesh. These devices were kept near the torture chamber in order to casually mask a torture session (it had happened to one of the Jackers before, and they didn't really want to tick off the important people of that planet,) or to fix up a victim enough to keep them alive if they happened to be dying "too quickly."

The Tallest made a quick mental note of everything that was wrong with the dying Vortian: a crushed hand, broken fingers, two of which had been completely severed, a broken horn, a near disemboweling, excessive bleeding from the torso wound and other areas, one of his legs was bent and twisted in several different places while the other had many small cuts in the flesh as well as a fresh break at the knee, burns along his limbs, and there was also blood trickling down his chin..

He removed the cloth that had been nearly shoved down Lard Nar's throat and found evidence of forced entry from some kind of object, probably a tube. The Vortian's throat was damaged; he most likely wouldn't be able to swallow properly for a while.

White and coloured blistered covered his arms and legs from the burnings. The skin looked tender... he wondered if he would be able to touch Lard Nar without causing him immense pain.

It was amazing that the Vortian had survived all of this.

Oh great control brains... Lard Nar's eyes were open. They were glassy and unfocused, but they were open. "You were never unconscious were you...?" Purple grumbled. He wanted to hit something. "Dlarn it... Red must have used that new drug from Planet Carcashia..."

The drug kept its victim in a state of full consciousness while completely immobilizing the body. It was illegal in most parts of the galaxy... Purple wondered briefly how his partner had gotten his hands on it.

"Don't worry..." he tried to sound calm. "You'll be fine. I'll erase your memory again like last time. You won't remember anything..." He found a syringe in the supplies he'd gathered. Now he needed a sedative.

"Sir...?" Grahl questioned from the entrance of the chamber.

"You!" Purple pointed at his follower. "Go get me a sedative from the medical facility, and be quick about it!"

"Yes sir!" Grahl exclaimed as he rushed to follow his Tallest's orders.

"Computer: access codes 4579, return the temperature to normal."

**Voice authorization recognized: Tallest Purple, request granted.**

A flow of cold air quickly cooled the room back down to normal temperature. Purple breathed in the new air and let out a sigh. "I hate this ship... my followers are all idiots... Red is a Blastard..." Why was he still here? If only he would have released Lard Nar sooner... at least the Vortian could have escaped all of this.

"I was selfish..." he admitted rubbing his temples. "I was planning on letting him for a while, but I hesitated... It was because I didn't want to be trapped here alone... with Red. It wasn't his fault." He turned to Lard Nar who was lying motionless on the table.

"I promise... this time I will release you... you won't ever have to experience this kind of thing again." He opened one of the containers he found, and he stuck his fingers in the cool gel. "I'll have to wait for the sedatives before I can fix your broken bones and seal up that gash, but this should work on your burns nicely."

He began rubbing the gel over the Vortian's burned skin. The blistered faded quickly, and the flesh changed back to its normal colouring. Some peeled off, but the skin underneath was fine. Hopefully there wouldn't be any scarring.

"I don't want to cause you anymore pain," Purple told him as he glanced towards the door to see if Grahl was retuning. "We'll have to wait for Grahl... hopefully that useless drone won't take too long."

He noticed the metal collar lying on the ground and he stooped down to retrieve it. It was covered in blood as well. Just how much had Lard Nar bled? His fingers tightened around the device. "Miyuki wouldn't have done any of this... just what is Red thinking…?"

"Sir!" Grahl gasped as he bolted into the room. "The... the sedative..." he breathed, holding up the small container.

"Hold still or I'll jab you in the arm," Purple growled as he stuck the needle through the top. He wondered if he should be doing this since he only had two fingers on each hand and no thumb, but he didn't really have the luxury of time right now. It would take too long to call someone who knew what they were doing.

Lard Nar was very near death... at least he couldn't make things much worse.

"Alright... once I am finished sealing up the external wounds and reattaching the bones, I'll need you to contact Prisoner 777 from Vort. Tell him we'll need plans for a robotic hand."

"Yes sir."

"Also, get some of the engineers in here."

"Yes my Tallest, right away."

Grahl saluted before dashing out the door.

There was no point trying to save Lard Nar's hand. The bones had been crushed badly, and no amount of fixing would ever allow him to use that hand properly again. Also, the missing fingers were not lying around in plain sight. They could have already been destroyed.

"Alright," Purple said as he carefully stuck the needle in the Vortian's upper arm. There was a small red mark where it looked like he'd taken a needle once before, so Purple didn't spend a lot of time worrying if he'd done it right. "This will only take a day or two..."

Lard Nar's eyes slowly drifted shut.

Purple breathed a sigh. This was no time to get sick... he wanted to throw up when he first saw the Vortian lying there with his organs exposed and blood covering everything... but the Tallest was ignoring this feeling now so he could concentrate on what needed to be done.

He would never understand how Red could sit through an entire torture session with a bag of chips, laughing at the blood and the screams of agony coming from the victim. It always made Purple's spooch feel queasy to watch such a thing excessively... he usually found some kind of excuse to leave if the torture session lasted longer than a few cycles, although he pretended to like it well enough.

He didn't like to admit it, but he had gotten sick a few times in the past from watching creatures getting their limbs broken and torn off.

* * *

><p><strong>More Notes:<strong> Soo... do you like Red? Do you hate him? Who knows why he's crazy... maybe he has a Pak malfunction or something. Or maybe Purple is the real crazy one. Saving a slave, and being all nice towards a non-Irken, tsk tsk.

Oh yeah, I lied about Purple being dead. You've probably noticed. Sorry. He's alive after all. Grahl was fixed at some point. He now acts like any other follower of the Tallest which pisses Purple off just a bit.

And yes, you'll find out how Purple beat the ten minute count down in the next chapter. If he hadn't, Lard Nar would be dead for sure. Literally no one else on board would have helped him, not even Grahl. Although it would have been one of the not nicer ways of ending this story I guess. Instead I wrote like 100 or more pages of stuff.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's notes: **Dumb computer issues. At least I separated this chapter from the rest ahead of time. After I post this I'm going to listen to the wind storm for a bit then go to bed, just in case you were wondering what I do after I post a chapter. You weren't? Aww. Well I seem to usually update around midnight for some reason. My brain is like "I should go to bed... no wait, I should update first."

* * *

><p><strong>The After Effects<strong>

"What do you mean I can't have his memory erased!?" Purple demanded loudly.

Lard Nar cracked open and eye when he heard the Tallest shouting... the first thing he noticed was he was no longer strapped down. He moved his arms closer to his body and curled up protectively. He was lying on Tallest Purple's bed... it reminded him of the first time he regained consciousness after he'd lost his crew.

"Sir... his psyche has been damaged too severely... if we erased his memory, we could end up erasing more than just the torture incident..."

"Our machines are not that inaccurate..." Purple muttered.

"It's a risk sir... it could cause permanent mental dysfunctions... that's all I'm saying."

Purple sighed. "Fine... I guess he'll have to recover his sanity on his own then."

"Yes sir."

The former captain heard someone coming closer to the bed, so he remained still and didn't move at all. At the same time, the sound of a door sliding shut signalled someone's leave.

"Are you awake now?" Purple questioned.

"I... I thought you were dead..." Lard Nar croaked. His throat still hurt, but other than that he felt no pain.

"Yes, well... luckily for me Red wasn't trying very hard to kill me, otherwise I might've been dead."

"H-How...?"

"My armour. It has a built in life-support system that temporarily takes over if my pak is removed or starts to malfunction," Purple paused. He wasn't too sure how to ask this question... but it needed to be asked. "How much do you remember?"

"Trying... not to..." Lard Nar mumbled shuddering.

He could still hear the torturer's snickering and the sounds of the different devices penetrating his skin... and the snap of his own bones breaking. He felt tears falling from his eyes. It was embarrassing to be crying in front of the Tallest... but then... he wasn't much of a captain anyway.

How could he expect to protect his crew and take down the Irken Empire if he couldn't even protect his himself...? And he'd already lost his crew... He really couldn't protect anything. He couldn't even fight back when they led him into the torture chamber.

"Here..." Purple said offering him a can of soda that had been sitting on the desk. "Try drinking this. It's flat, so it shouldn't cause you too much pain."

Lard Nar uncurled a bit under the blanket, and he turned to stare at the can without any expression at all. He didn't feel hungry or thirsty.

"The sooner you start eating and drinking, the sooner I can remove the IV," Purple explained. "I did promise you freedom, but you have to work at getting better first. Understand?"

"I... I want to leave... now…" Lard Nar muttered. Everything in this ship reminded him of his captivity... he wanted to leave more than anything else.

"Alright..." Purple said as he placed the soda back on the desk. "I'll figure something out. But you should at least try drinking something before you go so I'll feel better about removing the IV."

"Wait..." Lard Nar muttered as he slowly raised himself to sit. He wrapped the blanket tight around himself because he wasn't wearing any clothes. He winced when he thought about the burns he'd received… and he could still feel pain where the guard had cut him open. "You're... leaving?"

"Yes," Purple answered raising an invisible brow. "Why? Is there a problem?" The Vortian fidgeted nervously and lowered his eyes.

"Red wouldn't dare try anything like that again... not if he knows what's good for him," Purple growled. "I've already contacted Adviser Tad about the matter. Red is due to have a hearing with Irk's head Control Brain within the next twenty-four cycles."

Then Lard Nar noticed his hand felt a bit different. He looked at it more closely, his eyes widening when he realized it was made of metal coated in a substance that looked like skin... but it wasn't. It was a Vortian invention.

"It's... it's really gone..." Lard Nar mumbled as he continued to stare.

"And your horn wouldn't reattach properly either, so it's being held in place by a metal band. I asked prisoner 777 about it. Apparently they don't grow back."

"Y-yeah..."

"The Empire has a lot of technology. I'm sure I can find something that will reattach it for good eventually," Purple offered as some encouragement. "For now the band will work. Do you want to try drinking the soda yet?"

Lard Nar slowly shook his head no.

Purple rubbed one of his eyes. "Ok then... I'll be gone for half a cycle. You can try walking if you want. I think I did a better job at fixing your legs this time."

"You were the one...?"

"I have some medical experience... not a lot, but it's enough to get by. Besides, with the kind of technology we have, almost anything can be fixed easily," Purple paused when the door slid open, and he glanced over his shoulder. "I guess that's one of the perks of conquering other planets." He stepped out into the hallway, leaving Lard Nar alone in quiet contemplation.

The former captain's thoughts were quickly filled with the memories and sensations of the torture he'd experienced. He shut his eyes and ground his teeth, balling his hands into fists. The memories were painful... would he ever be able to get over this?

Purple had definitely gone above and beyond Lard Nar's shaky expectations... but so had the red Tallest... how could two almost identical Irkens act so differently?

He glanced at the tube running into his arm. Then, without giving it another thought, he tore it out. He bit his tongue and winced. Blood trickled down his arm, bringing back another flood of memories from the torture chamber.

"No dlark it..." he told himself squeezing his eyes shut. It didn't matter. He could still see the horrible images in his mind. "I... I don't want to think about it..." he muttered to himself.

Purple returned in a half-cycle, just like he said he would. The Tallest sighed when he saw the IV hanging beside the bed, and the blood soaking into the blanket from the Vortian's arm.

"That's not a bandage you know," Purple notified him.

"I know..." Lard Nar mumbled.

Purple sighed and placed his hands on his hips. "You couldn't have waited for me to do that? It would have been a lot less messy."

Lard Nar shrugged his shoulders and kept his eyes downcast. He was still sitting, although he was trying to avoid looking at his blood.

"The Spittle Runner is ready," Purple told him.

"What will I do... when I leave...?"

"Isn't that the beauty of it? You can do anything you want."

"I... I don't know what I want anymore..." Lard Nar admitted.

"Yes... yes you do Lard Nar," Purple said evenly. "You want to escape from here. You want to start a new and better resistance, and you want to stop the Irken Empire from destroying or enslaving anymore planets."

"Not... really..." Lard Nar murmured, rubbing his sore arm. "I just want to leave here... because it freaks me out..."

Purple let out a long sigh. "Fine. I'll go with you."

"Huh?"

"You heard me. If you don't know what you're doing, you're bound to get into trouble... and I'm sick of being stuck in this place anyway, so I'll take you outside of the Empire."

"But... won't the Empire... panic?"

"If Red is convicted of treason, then yes. I'll be the only Tallest fit to rule Irk."

"Then..."

Purple waved away his worries. "Just think of it as a vacation."

"But if aliens outside the Empire recognize you..."

"They won't."

"But if they do, you'll be treated as a prisoner... maybe worse."

"Yes, probably," Purple agreed. "But I've got a plan."

"What is your plan exactly...?" Lard Nar questioned, narrowing his eyes at the Tallest.

"You'll see."

"That's not very comforting..."

"Buuut... I just made you forget didn't I?" Purple teased. He smirked as he watched the Vortian' eyes widen. "Haa... You're still fun to mess with."

"I'm actually worried about you..." Lard Nar muttered. "You've almost died once already, and if the rest of the universe sees you as I used to... well... you'll probably end up dying."

"Yeah, but I'm an Irken, and I'm the Tallest," Purple reminded him with a cheeky smirk. "I won't die easily, and you aren't responsible for my safety. I won't end up like your crew did." He was trying to bait the Vortian into a verbal battle of sorts, but when Lard Nar sullenly withdrew from the conversation completely, the Tallest recognized he'd overstepped his bounds.

He cleared his throat. "Anyway, have you tried walking yet?"

"Not without clothes..." Lard Nar murmured.

"Well yours were all cut-up, and I didn't think you'd appreciate waking up in standard Irken attire." He held up one of his hands and wiggled his two fingers. "Would you believe I'm horrible at sewing?"

"...I don't really care... about the uniform... anything would have worked..."

Purple stared at him for a moment. His antennae fell back. The Vortian's attitude had changed a lot... It was a bit troubling.

"Try anyway," Purple insisted.

Lard Nar didn't respond.

The Tallest crossed his arms over his chest. "Do you think I'm joking or something?" he asked. "If one of your legs isn't healed properly, I need to know about it before we leave the Massive. This ship happens to have everything we need to heal you properly... minus the actual medical personnel of course."

The Vortian was clutching the blanket very tightly now.

Purple moved a bit closer and reached to take the blanket from him.

"Don't..." Lard Nar whimpered as he ducked away from the Tallest's hand. "Please don't..."

Purple froze. He wanted to kick something. Where was Grahl when he needed him anyway? He withdrew his hand and rubbed his forehead. "Mind telling me why you're being so defensive around me? I did spend hours saving your life, and believe me, you weren't clothed then either."

Lard Nar tugged the blanket over his head and lay back down without speaking a word.

"Ok then... apparently I'm invisible," Purple remarked. "Soo... I guess I'll just go and make sure Red hasn't killed any of the guards."

This time Lard Nar didn't say anything when the Tallest left.

* * *

><p><strong>More Notes:<strong> I didn't include all the torture that happened. If I did, I'd probably have to give this fic a higher rating, and I don't want to do that. But yes, Lard Nar did lose his hand. This isn't a huge plot device or anything, but it will make for some interesting conversation later maybe?

Ah Red. Even by Irken standards he's gone too far. Not with the torture of course, Irkens couldn't care less about how many aliens their leaders torture to death, but the fact Red nearly killed his fellow Tallest… well a regular Irken would be deactivated immediately. We shall see what the Empire thinks of this!

Until next time. –Leaves for 5 years-

Just kidding! I know with my track record I shouldn't be making those kinds of jokes…


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's notes:** Ah yes... one of the Tallest is being arrested for attempted murder, and at the same time the other one has decided to "go on vacation." Talk about reliable leadership right?

I own no Zim.

* * *

><p><strong>Getting a New Ship<strong>

"That... is your plan?" Lard Nar stared at the Tallest who had just returned from checking up on things. Red was being subdued on one of the lower levels of the Massive, the Massive was supposedly on route to oversee the conquest of Boredia, and the invaders who had already finished their missions were still around somewhere. Everything was going well so far.

Purple had changed his armor, so it looked a bit different. It was silver instead of lavender and it had a few alien designs carved into it. The 'best part' of the outfit however was the mask. It went around his eyes like a bandit, and it was blue in colour.

Apparently these things would keep any curious bystanders, civilians, and rebels from finding out Purple's identity.

"Yeah, pretty cool huh? I was going to do more, but I wanted to make sure none of my own followers would try to stop us," Purple explained as he took off the mask and shoved it in his 'pocket.' "In my experience, this should be enough to fool anyone in the galaxy anyway."

"I can understand that..."

"Vortians are one of the rare exceptions," Purple pointed out. "Invader Larb didn't even bother trying to come up with a disguise. He knew your people would see right through it."

"We thought of him as a diplomat... that in its self was quite stupid."

Purple shrugged. "We can't be smart all the time."

"Do you know where we're going?" Lard Nar asked. He couldn't make himself meet Purple's eyes.

"Somewhere away from the Empire," the Tallest answered him easily.

Lard Nar breathed a sigh. He was sitting at the end of the bed, dressed in the clothes Grahl had brought him. They looked very similar to the ones he'd been wearing before, except Grahl's cuts were more jagged.

"Ready to go?" Purple asked. He was beginning to think he was more excited about leaving than Lard Nar was.

"Yeah..." the Vortian responded as he slid off the bed. He felt a bit dizzy, but there was no pain anywhere in his body. He couldn't even feel the small hole in his arm where the IV had been torn out.

Purple smiled as he walked out into the hall, leading the way.

"Are you sure about this...?" Lard Nar questioned, trailing behind. He clutched one of his arms nervously and glanced around the hallway, checking to see if any of Purple's followers were going to stop them.

"Don't worry about it. I've got everything planned out," Purple replied. "It'll be fun."

"Fun?" Lard Nar repeated with a scowl.

"Yup."

Even the familiar halls of the Massive made Lard Nar cringe. Everything was dead silent... and still. If it wasn't for Purple who was practically bouncing with joy and joking about actually having a plan, the hallways would have been eerie to travel through.

He kept expecting soldiers to be waiting behind one of the many doors they passed, or for the elevator platforms to be blocked off.

"Hey."

Purple drew his attention away from his surroundings as he focused on the Tallest again.

"Y-Yeah?" Lard Nar stammered.

"Just remember," Purple began suddenly looking very serious. "This time I'm on your side." He couldn't hold this expression very long. For some reason, he seemed to be rather giddy about leaving the Massive. "Let's just get out of here ok?"

"Yeah, sure," Lard Nar agreed as they came to the large doors of the docking bay.

The doors slid open revealing a large landing space and rows upon rows of empty spaces for Spittle Runners and other Irken battle ships. This was where the Armada refuelled, and where the ships were parked when they weren't in service.

Lard Nar remembered vaguely when he designed this space... but it had been what felt like decades ago, and he couldn't stop himself from gaping at the sheer size of the room.

"Not bad huh?" Purple questioned. "I think the engineers stuck to the plans for this room pretty nicely."

"Sir," and Irken approached the Tallest. He saluted and stood at attention as he spoke. "Your ship is ready for departure."

"Ah good. I'll be on vacation for a few days, spending monies and partying, and whatnot, so make sure the Massive continues to stay on course. It'll boost moral or whatever. Oh, and have all my calls redirected to Adviser Tad."

"Yes sir! But um... shouldn't you have some body guards with you?"

"I already have one," Purple replied, gesturing at Lard Nar.

"But sir... he's not even Irken."

"Are you questioning me soldier?" Purple asked, leering down at his follower.

"No sir."

Purple smirked. "Good. Then go away."

The Tallest climbed through the hatch of the Spittle Runner and sat down in one of the chairs. He turned on the computer and began typing different codes in. The power-core was activated, the flight program started up, and the route off the Massive was automatically planned.

Lard Nar sat down in the chair beside his and looked at all the different keys. He knew what most of them did, but he didn't really care... if Purple wanted to fly, he wasn't going to argue.

"We need to stop at a fueling station so I can trade the Spittle Runner in for something less conspicuous," Purple explained. The safety straps automatically came across them and locked into place. Lard Nar stiffened. His breathing quickened and he tried feebly to loosen his strap.

"Hang on, we're lifting off," Purple announced as the Spittle Runner lifted off the ground. It wobbled unsteadily for a brief moment before leveling out and shooting towards the exit.

Once they were a good distance from the Massive, Purple let up on the thrusters, and the ship began drifting at a much slower pace.

"Well, I guess that wasn't too bad considering I haven't piloted in a long time," Purple commented as he reached behind his seat and pulled out a snack bar. "Want one?" he asked, offering it to Lard Nar.

"I think I'm going to be sick..." the former captain muttered, turning away.

"Hey! This is the first time I've flown anything since I became the Tallest," Purple remarked, tearing open the wrapper. "Be nice."

Lard Nar grasped the straps keeping him trapped in his seat. His palms were sweating. "C-Can I remove this now?" he stammered.

Purple's mouth was full, but he regarded the Vortian, and unclasped his own safety belt in response.

The Vortian undid his and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not the same," Purple said in-between bites.

"What do you mean..?" Lard Nar questioned, catching a quick glance at The Tallest.

Purple swallowed. "The safety belts and the straps used in the torture chamber aren't the same," he replied.

"I know that..." Lard Nar muttered.

"Alright. So if we hit some kind of turbulence, an exploding star, black hole, or space debris for example, the belts are going right back on."

The Vortian nodded. He knew the straps in here were for safety purposes and nothing else... he knew that, and yet he still disliked the feeling of being held back by them.

There were plenty of fueling stations within the expanding Irken Empire, but Purple passed by all of them. He kept one hand on the controls and used the other to hold all sorts of different snacks at different times, such as popcorn, chips, snack bars, donuts, a variation of an ice-cream pop, and a slushie. The Tallest was definitely prepared for a long journey.

"How did that not melt...?" Lard Nar finally asked, glancing curiously up at the Tallest.

"One of the storage compartments has a build in freezing mechanism," Purple replied before taking a large gulp of his slushie.

"You filled it with... those?"

"You should have one. They're pretty good."

"...I'm not hungry."

"This isn't meant to fill you up. It's flavored ice. If you were hungry you would be very disappointed with one of these."

"Why are you eating so much now?"

"There'll be less to bring onto the other ship this way."

Lard Nar blinked.

"And the one I'm going to trade for might not have a built in freezer, or much storage space, although I'm aiming to get one that has enough room for at least a week's worth of supplies."

"Oh.."

"Yeah, and you really should be helping me out here. I thought you'd at least be able to keep up with me considering you haven't eaten anything in days." Purple's antennae perked up and he took a quick look at the empty space drifting past them. He grinned.

"That's it; the end of Irken controlled space! Now I just need to find a fueling station."

Lard Nar looked in the same direction Purple had been. "How can you tell?"

"The ship just lost its connection with the other Irken ships. I was just looking to see if there was a difference in space," he shrugged his shoulders. "There isn't one."

A small fueling station crafted out of some kind of rock was drifting slowly nearby. The second Purple spotted it; he drove the ship forward and landed next to a rather bulky looking alien ship. It had pipes sticking out on all sides, and Purple narrowed an eye.

"Yup, I'm not that desperate..." he said as he put his mask on. "Stay here a minute. I'm going to go talk to a few people...and maybe get an idea of what I'm looking for."

"Do you know anything about non-Irken ships?" Lard Nar asked.

"Not really," Purple admitted.

Lard Nar sighed. "Then I should come with you."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Purple told him as he stood up from his seat.

The former captain watched him go. He was still feeling a little apprehensive about Purple leaving the Empire. Didn't the Tallest have any sense of self-preservation?

When Purple hadn't returned in a while, Lard Nar got up from his seat and slowly began making his way to the exit hatch.

"I thought I told you to stay," Purple remarked, giving the Vortian a stern look as the hatch opened and platform landed.

Lard Nar recoiled from the Tallest's harsh gaze and muttered an apology.

"No need to apologize," Purple said with a smirk. "I know you're curious, but outside of the Empire I don't have any control. Actually, I have less control than that, so I just want you to be careful ok? At least until you've regained your confidence."

"Do you think I will...?" Lard Nar asked, lowering his head and breathing a sigh. At the moment he didn't feel like he would ever be able to fully recover from what happened…

"Of course you will," Purple responded. "You're one of the most resilient non-Irkens I've met."

"Thanks..."

"Sure, now let's move into the new ship."

Purple moved most of the non-meltable food items onto the sleek looking 'Zaphire' ship. It was a great deal smaller than the spittle runner, and it only had one small laser gun, but it was fast. Its defenses were hardly worth mentioning, but what it lacked in weapons and shields, it made up for in speed and accuracy.

Unfortunately Purple had no idea how to tap into the ship's hidden potential and the owner's manual was in a language he didn't understand. The owner, a Zapharite from a faraway district, had given him a list of the basic controls.

Purple did the same for him since the Spittle Runner was a bit foreign to the alien, and then the two parted company.

Trading ships wasn't exactly uncommon, but most ships that were traded between aliens were at least somewhat similar to their own. Also, the people doing the trade generally had some kind of connection to each other. It was a little unusual for a stranger to want to trade vehicles with someone

"You have no idea how to fly this ship..." Lard Nar noted after watching the Tallest stare at the blinking and beeping controls for nearly half a cycle.

"I'm trying to remember what that guy said..." Purple admitted. "But it isn't coming to me."

"You could have just said so," Lard Nar remarked as he slid off of his seat and crouched down on the ground.

"Er... what are you doing?" Purple asked.

"I'm seeing where these wires connect..." Lard Nar told him. The Vortian was able to pry a part off underneath the control panel. Everything was very neat. All of the wires ran their separate course and none of them were tangled. "Alright... it's a pretty basic layout..."

"Have I ever told you how glad I am you're an engineer and not a window cleaner?" Purple questioned, looking quite relieved.

"Uhh... no."

Lard Nar followed the wires up, each to their specific destinations. "The energy flow is coming from this one... so the start key should be..." he hit one of the buttons, and the ship began to hum. "There... now the balancer needs to be activated." He flipped a switch, and the vessel leveled out. "Alright. This lever over here must be for the thrusters then," he gestured to one of the levers close to the Tallest's hand. "The control panel is hidden under the metal coating, here," he tapped a small red button, and a piece slid away revealing the key pad.

"Do you want to drive this one?" Purple asked, and Lard Nar froze.

"Where would I go..?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Just pick a direction and fly," Purple answered. "I'm not picky."

"Well... Ok."

* * *

><p><strong>More notes:<strong> I tried to make it obvious that Purple doesn't really know how to deal with Lard Nar's paranoia and negative emotions, so the Tallest opts to use humor to kind of make light of it. This may or may not also make him seem like an insensitive jerk. He's not trying to be this time. I swear. He's also excited about getting to leave the Empire too because he hasn't really taken an opportunity to do this before, probably because of Red, probably.

Thanks for dropping by. I'll update sometime.


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Notes:** It has now been "some time." I also landed a summer job. I guess I'll update.

This chapter introduces a new species of alien. They're… yeah. I made these guys up years ago, and now finally I've finally gotten around to posting them on this site .

In response to the comments: Earth would have been interesting. Unfortunately, they are not flying in the correct direction, and Purple can't go super far due to the fact he will probably have to return to the Massive at some point. Not that I'm trying to give anything away… but that is probably in his thoughts.

He's not completely irresponsible although he sometimes likes to act like he is.

* * *

><p><strong>The Heroians<strong>

Lard Nar managed to eat one of the puddings Purple had brought along with him, although it took a full cycle. Swallowing reminded him of the tube that had been shoved down his throat.

It forced him to gag, and he coughed up blood because he couldn't swallow. He could still feel the bile in the back of his throat as the disgusting liquid was poured down the tube, making him want to wretch as his insides burned.

The memories caused him to shiver, and he winced.

"Are you ok?" Purple asked, glancing away from the controls long enough to regard the trembling Vortian. After watching Lard Nar fly the ship for a day, he began to catch on. Now he could control the vessel with very little instruction. "Does it still hurt to swallow?"

Lard Nar nodded slowly. Tears pricked his eyes. He really didn't want to be crying about this... not now.

"I'd be pretty upset if I couldn't eat snacks too," Purple remarked. "It'll get better though."

"I know... I know it will..." Lard Nar mumbled.

"Huh..." Purple blinked down at the small screen in front of him. "Something just appeared on the monitors."

Lard Nar leaned in a bit to get a closer look. The small flashing dot that appeared suddenly broke into three. It was impossible to tell exactly how large the objects were or even what shape they were. This alien technology wasn't as advanced as Irken and Vortian technology.

"It's heading straight for us isn't it?" Purple mused, scratching his chin.

"There's three..." Lard Nar murmured.

"Well they can't be Irken ships if they're travelling that fast," Purple reasoned. Spittle Runners were their fastest ships, but not even they travelled at the kind of speed he was seeing. He grabbed something out of his pocket and handed it to Lard Nar. "Here, wear this."

Lard Nar took it from the Tallest, and studied it. "This is a mask..."

"Yeah, you might want to put it on."

The former captain continued to stare at it. "Why...?"

"Vortians are worth a lot of monies on the slave market..." Purple replied somewhat hesitantly.

"What slave market?" Lard Nar frowned. He'd been outside of the Empire before, although he couldn't recall exactly being in this sector specifically. Still, something as big as a slave-trade wouldn't have completely escaped his notice…

"Can you just put it on?"

"I've never heard anything about a slave trade..." he insisted.

"Rich and powerful planets will pay a lot of monies to have slaves capable of creating weapons of doom," Purple responded. "There wasn't been much activity in the past year because the ones who were doing most of the smuggling were captured, and why do you need so much convincing? Can't you just trust me?"

The mask fit over his eyes, and Lard Nar quickly tied it tight so it wouldn't slip.

"Alright, they're hailing us... so let's try to be civil and maybe we'll get out of this in one piece," Purple spoke out loud. He was saying this mostly for himself since being civil to aliens wasn't really something he'd really practiced much before.

Purple flicked a switch, but it was the wrong one, so Lard Nar reached over and pressed the right one.

The screen flickered. Then a figure appeared. The top half of its face was covered by a mask similar to the ones Purple and Lard Nar were wearing. It had white skin, a small nose, and bright blue eyes. The creature was about the same size as Lard Nar, but it didn't appear to have any horns or antennae.

"Greetings comrades!" the creature was the first to speak. "I was worried you might be an enemy, but it's obvious with those masks you must have heard about the Heroian's quest to liberate all enslaved peoples and to do goodness in the universe."

Purple blinked. "Do what to the universe?"

"What my p-partner means to say is, of course we came to help with... um... whatever you're doing..." Lard Nar tried to cover for Purple, but his nervousness caused him to fumble with his words.

"I don't know captain," another alien off screen said, sounding a bit skeptical. "They don't look much like Heroians..."

The captain's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Hm... you're right. The masks are similar, but that's about it for the similarities... just who are you people?"

"My name is Kaenen," Purple replied, sitting up straight. "I'm a third generation soldier from the planet Miekar." He saluted half-heartedly, knowing it was unlikely the person on the monitor would salute back.

Lard Nar froze. He hadn't expected to have to come up with a new name on the spot. Hold on a moment… just how were the masks even working? Couldn't these people see Purple was obviously an Irken?

"And my friend's name is Toffer," the Tallest covered for him. "We were told about the Heroians, and how they defeated the Dalmish. We were curious."

"I've never heard of a planet Miekar," the alien off screen stated.

"Yeah, unfortunately it was destroyed ten years ago during a freak super nova," Purple waved at the aliens dismissively. "All of my people died. It was quite tragic."

Lard Nar wished he could disappear. The Tallest was obviously lying in a very obvious and apathetic manner. Anyone would be able to see through this charade.

"It was also quite far away," Purple added as an afterthought. "Yeah... I haven't met too many people around here that have heard of it. Toffer's people took me in, so I generally go by his planet's name rather than my own."

The captain cleared his throat. "Well, in any case, it doesn't sound like either of you associate yourselves with evil... so you're free to come with us. We're always looking for more recruits."

"Oh sure. We love fighting evil and stuff, don't we Toffer?" Purple glanced at Lard Nar who nodded mutely.

The screen flicked off, and Lard Nar let out a sigh. He hadn't even realized he'd been holding his breath.

"You don't do well under pressure do you?" Purple asked, suppressing a chuckle.

"If they find out we're lying... we're going to be in deep trouble..."

"Yes, but they won't find out," Purple replied with a smile. "So just relax and have fun."

Lard Nar wondered if the Tallest had a reason for being so confident. He always thought the leaders of Irk were reliant on their followers for everything, including protection. Maybe a Tallest could defend himself though, if he had to.

The Heroian ships led them back to the planet Heroia. They landed in the middle of a seemingly empty field that was surrounded by forest. The sky was a mix of pinks and purples, the clouds were a fair white.

Purple set the ship down next to the others and turned it off. "Well, I think this planet looks nice enough," he commented. "And it's not like we were planning to go anywhere specific."

"But what will happen to us if they find out we're lying...?" Lard Nar asked, clasping and unclasping his hands nervously.

"I think I'll have more to worry about than you," Purple commented. "Heroians are strictly against slavery. They will have pity on you because you're from a conquered planet, while I on the other hand will probably die for being the evil overlord of an evil Empire."

"But you aren't really evil..." Lard Nar remarked.

"Really? What makes you say that?"

Lard Nar had a few answers to give him, but he couldn't find the right words to express them. Purple just wasn't evil. No one who would risk his life to free a slave could be evil.

"Let me know when you have an answer," Purple yawned and stretched. "I'm sick of being in this ship! Let's go outside and explore."

"Aren't you the least bit worried?" Lard Nar pressed.

The Tallest got up from his chair. "Nope. Not really," he responded as he headed for the exit at the back.

Lard Nar slowly stood up, and he followed after the Tallest. Was Purple just naïve? The Irken probably hadn't been away from the Empire in a long time. Didn't he realize what could happen?

They were greeted by the captain. He wore a dark blue mask, and a uniform with silver cufflinks and lightning symbols along the sleeves. The cape he wore was also dark blue, his pants had a gold coloured clasp for each leg, and he also sported a black belt with a bright yellow buckle.

His followers gathered around him as he walked. Most of them appeared to be the same species as the captain, and all of them wore similar outfits in various colours. None of them were wearing a cape though, that seemed to be a privilege that only their leader had.

"Some of the boys are a little bit skeptical," the leader started to explain. "I hope you don't mind if I ask you a few questions in private."

"You mean an interrogation?" Purple questioned crossing his arms. "I don't mind."

"No no," the captain appeared to be doing his best to make both his followers and the strangers feel comfortable. He smiled ruefully and rubbed the back of his head. "Just uh... think of it as an interview. If you're going to join us, I just have to ask a few questions. That's all."

Purple shrugged his shoulders. "You can call it whatever you like." His eyes narrowed. "But you better go easy on my travel companion or you'll regret ever meeting me."

"Ha ha..." the captain held up his hands in defence. "Well then... please follow me."

There was a single tent set up near the tree-line. It had a giant lightning bold symbol on the entrance flaps, and the fabric was dyed blue and gold.

"Can I speak with you first Kaenen?" The captain asked, glancing back when he reached the entrance of the tent.

"Yeah sure," Purple responded. He looked down at Lard Nar who had started to tremble. "I'll only be gone a minute alright?"

"Y-yeah... alright," Lard Nar responded uneasily.

Purple stepped inside, and the flaps came down, blocking the entrance. Immediately two of the captain's followers grabbed Lard Nar and hauled him a good distance away. The Vortian's whole body stiffened and he squeezed his eyes closed. Even when they deposited him on the ground, he didn't move.

"You're awfully nervous for someone who has nothing to hide," the first spoke. Lard Nar recognized his voice as the one he and Purple had heard on the monitor.

"Our captain is a really nice guy, but he trusts people too easily," the other explained. "That's why if you and your friend are plotting something, we will find out. Understand?"

Lard Nar nodded. He couldn't make himself speak.

"So are you ready to come clean then?"

If he could, Lard Nar would have given them any information they wanted, because he was scared of them, but he couldn't even talk... all he could do was stare fearfully up at his tormentors as he tried desperately to control his shaking.

"This one is pretty stubborn isn't he?" the first questioned, cracking his knuckles.

"Yeah, and here I was hoping to avoid a beating," the second remarked placing his boot on the Vortian's leg and stepping down. "The captain hates it when we're rough."

Lard Nar ground his teeth when he felt the pressure slowly turning into pain. He tried to curl up closer to himself to protect his hands and legs. Limbs were so easily broken. Even though he was far away from the Massive, he could hear the snapping sounds of his bones breaking and the cackling laugh of the bloody Irken standing over him.

What the heck was wrong with him? Why couldn't he move or speak?

"Grab his arms Crippit!" the first exclaimed.

The other masked alien lunged at their victim and took hold of both his wrists. He stretched them away from the Vortian's body and pressed them hard into the earth.

With Lard Nar's hands out of the way, he could no longer protect himself. While the one held his arms, the other straddled him and raised a fist.

Lard Nar winced, but the blow never came. Instead the masked alien that had been sitting on top of him went flying through the air. The other Heroian quickly let go and tried to run, but Purple easily caught up with him. The second flew even further than the first one had.

Dusting off his hands, Purple walked back to Lard Nar and offered him a hand. "Come on, get up."

Lard Nar' trembling hand tentatively reached for the Tallest's, and Purple pulled him back to his feet.

"Did they hurt you at all...?"

The Vortian shook his head no, but Purple could tell he was favouring his right leg.

"Where the helk did I throw them?" the Tallest asked, looking around the area. "Because I'm going to bloody kill them..."

"Wait, please!" the captain called. The band's leader panted as he ran, and he came to a stop near enough to speak, but far away enough to avoid getting hit. "My boys were stupid..." he breathed. "But it's my fault! I'm their leader, so please punish me instead."

Purple turned to face the captain angrily. "Fine. I won't kill them, but you better hope I never catch them trying to hurt my companion again, or so help me..."

The captain bowed his head. "Thank you... again, I apologize. Intimidating others is not the Heroian way…"

"Do you still want to talk to Toffer?" Purple asked. Even though he and Lard Nar were clearly in the right, they were still outnumbered fifteen to one which could easily turn into a million to one since they were on Heroia.

"Yes please... I promise this won't happen again..." the captain said.

"Alright, but you to talk here," Purple insisted. "I want to keep you in my sight."

Purple left the immediate area, but he stood around on the opposite side of a nearby stream so he could watch the exchange.

Lard Nar swallowed and fidgeted nervously as he kept his eyes lowered to the ground.

"Your friend sure is protective of you," the captain commented.

"Yeah... he is..."

"How long have you known him for?"

"Oh uh... not long..." Lard Nar really couldn't bring himself to lie.

"What planet are you from?"

"Vort."

"You're a Vortian? Really? Did you know Captain Lard Nar?"

Lard Nar lifted his eyes off the ground and stared at the captain. "How do you know about him...?"

"He was the reason I formed this small band of Heroians. I hoped one day we could join the Resisty, but then... the Irkens destroyed them. I heard there were no survivors."

"There was one survivor..." Lard Nar spoke.

"Really? Who was it?" the captain asked curiously.

"Me."

The captain stared at him with his mouth open. "R-Really? You aren't lying are you...? I mean, you're really Captain Lard Nar?"

"Former captain..." Lard Nar replied, looking away. "My crew is dead."

"I can't believe it!" the captain was grinning now. "I thought you died! Is that why you have that metal band around your horn? Did you get it in the crash?"

"No... I got it..." Lard Nar reached up to touch it. "I got it during the second torture..."

"Oh..." the captain's grin quickly vanished. "I... I was tortured by the Empire once as well... I'm sorry."

"You were...? When?"

The captain sighed and ran a hand down his face. "Well... when I was younger me and a couple friends decided to hold a public protest shortly after Spork was named Tallest of Irk. He had plans to conquer Deldonia which was an ally of Heroia at the time... anyway, all of us were brought in for disturbing the peace and resisting the Empire."

"How long...?"

"Oh, it was a day probably... you don't really remember time well under those circumstances ... but it's a secret. I don't want my boys knowing I was tortured."

"That makes sense... I don't really want people knowing about it either..."

"Does your friend know?"

"Oh... uh yeah... he's helped me out a lot..."

"That's good. You need friends like that after getting tortured. It makes the recovery easier... if you like, I'll keep your identity a secret. Just please don't say anything about this to my boys."

"Ok."

* * *

><p><strong>More notesramblings:** -snirk- Yeah.. Toffer is a slight variation of the word toffee. What else can you expect from Purple? Kaenen is a variation on the name "Kane." Apparently all the time he spent covering for Red's outbursts has given Purple the ability to shamelessly lie on the spot. It's kind of like how writing fanfiction has given me the ability to shamelessly come up with these names on the spot. Bwah ha.

I hope to start posting these chapters more regularly before I begin looking back at these crazy ideas and wonder "what the helk was I thinking?" Like really? These names? Heroians? LOL! Oh well, they're better names than what I've been able to come up with lately... although this is the first time I've noticed the very close resemblance the name bares to a certain drug. -facepalm- Well, I meant for it to be like super heroes. Hero-ia (because most planets end in ia if they're like pun planets I guess). I shouldn't be allowed to write this much in here.

I'm also still surprised at what this Doc Manager tells me is spelled wrong. Defence and sceptical are spelled correctly where I'm from you program you.


	16. Chapter 16

Author's Notes: I posted this chapter despite the multiple ways I tried to distract myself. Has anyone ever played "Don't Starve?" That's a fun game. I die constantly in it. Also my CD drive like to randomly pop open, and this causes a pop up that strongly suggests I play "Spore." Once escaping this, I have to spend 5 minutes separating the individual chapter from the bulk of the story which requires respacing, and this happens while I'm trying to avoid Youtube and other social media sites like Facebook.

Then sometimes when I'm in my documents I see something else in there I haven't written in a while and of course I have to read the whole thing. If I'm fortunate I won't start writing while I'm in there, but I just never know.

I've never been diagnosed with ADD, but sometimes I wonder… anyway, enough with the excuses! Onto the chapter!

**Living the Heroian Way**

Lard Nar was eager to change out of the Irken clothes he was wearing. It didn't matter to him that the Heroian outfits looked strange with their lightning bolt symbols and overly large belts. His uniform when he'd been the leader of the Resisty hadn't been very normal either, now that he thought about it.

He wasn't sure how Purple was going to react when he was told to change clothes. The Tallests never went anywhere without their armour... Not even Tallest Miyuki had felt comfortable enough to leave it behind.

"I can't believe this is a requirement..." Purple sighed as he stepped out from behind one of the curtains inside the tent. He rotated his shoulders and moved his arms around. "It feels weird not wearing armour."

"Yeah, I guess it would..." Lard Nar agreed. He kept his back turned to the Tallest as he finished putting on the strange purple and yellow coloured shirt that matched his pants. Apparently the current Tallest was more carefree than the others had been...

"So did you get along well with the captain?" Purple asked him curiously.

"I think he's a good person..." Lard Nar admitted.

"How much did you tell him?"

"I couldn't lie Purple... but he doesn't know anything about you..."

The Tallest nodded. "Well, it's not like I expected you to keep up this charade for very long."

Lard Nar finished putting on the belt before turning to regard Purple. "Shouldn't you return to the Empire?" he asked. "Your people are probably worried about you."

"Nah... they won't mind it if I'm gone for a while," Purple responded. "It's going to take one gutsy soldier to figure out where I've gone when I've made it obvious I don't want to be disturbed. I have time."

"But... these people hate the Empire... if they figure out who you are..."

"That's my problem. You don't have to worry about me."

"Are you ready to meet the troop Toffer, Kaenen?" The captain questioned from the entrance of the tent.

"Sure," Purple replied as he walked towards the entrance. Lard Nar followed the Tallest with his head down, biting his bottom lip nervously. They joined with the captain and continued walking towards the open field.

"Right now our numbers are small, and we don't have much equipment, but one day we hope to be able to stand against the Irken Machine," the captain explained. There was a warm breeze blowing, rustling the trees. The smell of fresh wild-flower was strong. "We wear masks to protect our identities... no one goes by their real names."

As they walked, members of the group started to gather around.

Lard Nar recognized the two who had attacked him, and he drew closer to Purple.

"You've already met my two most headstrong and irresponsible members... Crippit and Lemwor. I have them on a three day fast for their behaviour," the captain said. "Then there is Froq, Taytan, Lodi, Alya, Mitzu, Kokin, Zalph, Nalko, Rodin, Jinsi, Zenta, Benos, brothers Nuka and Naku, Zebber, Mibi, and Divis. They are all natives of Heroia. The others; Kotto, Lizsurk, Galgira, Yittivik, Malchner, Odinos, Seurin, Moe, Rudner, Kloster, Hion, and Daltz are natives from other planets." He smiled. "It's ok if you can't remember everyone right away. They'll remind you."

"I think I've got it memorized," Purple replied in disinterest.

"Really?"

"Yes," Purple responded muffling a yawn.

"Well then, go on and name everyone," one of the member's laughed.

"Starting from the one who just spoke and going around counter-clockwise, the order is: Zebber, Mibi, Divis, Kotto, Lizsurk, Galgira, Yittivik, Malchner, Odinos, Seurin, Moe, Rudner, Kloster, Hion, Daltz, Froq, Taytan, Lodi, Alya, Mitzu, Kokin, Zalph, Nalko, Rodin, Jinsi, Zenta, Benos, Nuka, and Naku."

"Well you did leave out..." the captain began, but he quickly stopped when Purple gave him an irritated scowl.

"You don't think I did that on purpose?"

Lard Nar stared at the Tallest. On the Massive, Purple never cared to remember any of his follower's names... he was a bit impressed that Purple even had the ability.

"Now tell me, what do you do exactly?" the Tallest questioned. They had all stopped in the middle of the field, near the place the ships were parked.

"At the moment we stop Irken packages from arriving at their destinations, and we try to stay in shape for when we get more members and are finally able to confront the Empire directly. We also set up refugee camps on unused planets and supply the survivors with food from Heroia.

Last year we managed to defeat the Dalmish; a group of rogue pirates who were involved in selling refugees as slaves. Since then public support has been high, but the fear of the Empire keeps many from joining." He grinned. "We can always use another ship to help us haul the big rigs though."

Purple didn't look overly thrilled. He shrugged his shoulders. "I guess it'd be something to do."

"Today we were just patrolling," the captain explained. "The rest of the day you can spend doing whatever you want. Tomorrow, we'll head out to rescue those we can from the Empire's recent conquest." He looked around at all his followers. "You are dismissed. Meet here tomorrow morning at sunrise."

Everyone dispersed. Some started walking towards the trees, while others lay down in the field to enjoy the warmth of the sun, still others went to the small brook to play in the water.

The captain returned to his tent, leaving his followers to do whatever they want. The flap closed behind him.

"Well, let's go explore," Purple suggested.

"Ok..." Lard Nar replied.

"Hey, do you guys want to come see my village?" Divis asked as he approached the strangers. The bright eyed young Heroian was brown in colour, and he wore a white and red outfit. "It's not that far away."

Purple forced a smile. "Yeah, sounds fun," he replied.

The young Heroian grinned and began running towards the trees. "It's this way! Try to keep up!"

"Oh, is that a challenge?" Purple questioned stretching a bit. "It's been a while since I've done this, but I think I can out-run that squirt."

"Are you sure...?" Lard Nar asked. "I mean... you did use a hover..."

Before the Vortian could finish his sentence, Purple had taken off through the trees.

"Belt."

Lard Nar watched as Purple disappeared from sight. Immediately he began to shake and his palms started sweating. He looked around to see if those two attackers were nearby, and he was relieved when he couldn't see them anywhere.

He wanted to run, but he didn't feel like he could. His leg was still a bit sore from earlier, and his experience in the torture chamber left him feeling weak and useless.

Instead of following Purple, he sat down in the grass and decided to wait.

Purple easily outran the boy, but he slowed down a bit to give the illusion that the child was at least keeping up. He made it to the village and waited outside the gate for his young guide.

The Heroian panted as he slowly approached the Tallest. "You know... you're pretty fast..."

"That's why you shouldn't race someone taller than you," Purple remarked. He gestured behind him. "Is this your village?"

There were a few old houses surrounded by a wooden fence that came as high as the Tallest's shoulders. The gate was also quite small in comparison to Purple. There were a few Heroians watching from their door steps, and more had paused in the fields so they could see what was going on. The children playing in the centre of the small village stopped what they were doing and stared.

"Yeah it is," the boy replied. "My mom and dad live just over there," he pointed through the gate at the house standing nearby. "And my little brother and sister are outside. I try to see them as often as I can."

"Brother you're back!" His little sister exclaimed. She ran through the gate and latched onto her older sibling before shyly looking up at Purple.

"Who's that...?"

"He's one of our new members," Divis explained. "He's uh... what were you again?"

"I'm a Miekarian from the late planet Miekar," Purple answered.

"Are those your ears?" she asked, pointing at Purple's antennae. The Heroians all had jagged white ears.

"Pretty much," the Tallest replied. He didn't feel like explaining any further.

"They look a lot different from our ears."

"Sis... we've been over this before," Divis said in slight embarrassment. "Not everyone in the Universe looks like we do."

These villagers weren't dressed in gaudy flashy clothing like the members of the troop were, Purple noted. They didn't wear masks or have lightning bolts on their outfits. Instead the men wore traditional brown, faded red, or grey shirts with loose fitting pants, and the women wore white aprons over dull coloured dresses.

"What happened to your friend?" Divis asked suddenly when he realized Lard Nar hadn't followed them.

"Ah shloot..." Purple remarked as he started walking back the way they had come. "I didn't realize he wasn't following us."

"Wait, we'll come with you," Divis said, motioning for the other kids to come over. "The kids love playing with the Captain's group."

"Do what you want," Purple replied picking up his pace. He jogged back, wondering if Lard Nar had gotten himself into trouble. For some reason, the Vortian seemed particularly good at doing that.

He sighed in relief when he saw his comrade sitting quietly by himself in the tall grass. Lard Nar was looking up at the clouds in the sky, day dreaming of pleasant things. The warm breeze and the soft rustle of grass was very soothing. He was beginning to think he could fall asleep without any interference from his nightmares.

"You're so fast uncle!" The children complained as they finally caught up to Purple who had stopped to rest on a small hill. They fell into the grass and wildflowers, and some began rolling down the slope, giggling and laughing.

Divis was breathing hard when he stopped running. He paused, noting that Purple was within sight of his friend, but he seemed to be keeping his distance. The Tallest was lying on his back (which was rather uncomfortable for an Irken usually) with his head resting on his arms.

"I thought you wanted to join up with Toffer," Divis said, and Purple glanced at him with a neutral expression on his face.

"He's fine on his own right now," Purple explained muffling a yawn. "And tell those kids to stop calling me uncle."

"Oh ha ha.." Divis rubbed the back of his head ruefully. "I can't really make them do anything..."

"Come play too brother!" Divis's sister called from the bottom of the hill. She had been one of the first to roll down it.

"Alright! Everyone better get out of the way!" Divis called as he got a running start at the slope. He launched himself into the air and started rolling even before he hit the ground. He rolled faster than any of the children had, and some of them yelped and laughed as they dove to get out of his way.

"Let's spar!" one of the boys insisted when Divis had come to a stop.

"No, I want to spar with him!" another young boy said, tugging on Divis' sleeve.

Purple let out a sigh. These people really were carefree. They wouldn't last a second if they seriously came against the Empire.

"Um... Uncle sir...?" a young girl holding a small stuffed toy said shyly as she approached him.

"Yeah?"

"Can I sit with you?"

"Don't you want to play with the others?"

"No..." she admitted looking down at her feet. "They're a bit too wild for me..."

"Come sit then," Purple replied, motioning beside him.

The little girl alien sat down and scooted as close as she could to the Tallest without touching him. She placed the little doll in her lap, and faced away from Purple so she could watch the others play.

"How old are you?" she asked.

Purple flicked one of his antennae forward a bit to show he was listening. "Does it matter?" he replied.

"No... not really..." she said, hugging her doll closer. "The captain's crew members don't usually talk about that stuff... they're always very secretive about who they are behind their masks... that's what makes Divis different."

"That boy wouldn't last a minute in a real fight," Purple told her bluntly. "And if he doesn't want to get his village involved in anything unpleasant, it would be a good idea for him to keep his identity a secret."

"But Heroia has always fought for the freedom and peace of other planets!" the little girl insisted. "Only... now not very many people take part in helping other planets... our council decided it would be better for us to withdraw from being the heroes of the galaxy... because of the Irken Empire... they got scared of the Irkens."

"I hear the Irkens can be a bit intimidating," Purple agreed. "But that doesn't mean they're an unstoppable force."

"Exactly! Evil always loses!" the little girl exclaimed, smiling brightly. "That's why a lot of us kids want to join the captain when we get older. He stands for everything our planet used to stand for."

Purple smirked. "You want to become soldiers? The Irkens haven't marked your planet yet have they? You should be enjoying the peace and freedom you have."

"But a true Heroian can't..." the little girl began. Her ears drooped and her smile faded. "We can't enjoy our freedom when we know there are others out there that don't have it."

"What a strange planet you live on," Purple remarked.

The small girl crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at him. "It's not strange! Why is being nice to others strange?"

Purple chuckled. This girl was kind of funny. "Because most of the known Universe isn't like that," he replied, sitting up. "It's a cruel and unforgiving place... the strongest survive while the weak are either killed or dominated."

"But that's wrong... it shouldn't be like that..."

"Why not? It's a cruel system, but it works."

"Because..." the girl paused. She couldn't think of an answer. She'd always thought it was just common sense that people, alien or not, should be treated nicely.

"It's ok," Purple told her, sighing. "I've just seen a lot more that you have."

"What do you mean?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about," Purple replied. He looked at the children playing at the bottom of the hill. "Do they really want to learn how to fight?"

"Most of them do... they've said so before. The captain won't let us train with him or his boys though... he tells us we're too young."

"You're never too young to learn how to fight, uh... well unless you really are too young, but you can hold a weapon can't you?"

The girl nodded.

"Then you're capable of learning."

"Come on Kaenen!" Divis called waving up at him. "We're going to go play in the water! You should come too!"

Purple quickly turned to look in the opposite direction. Lard Nar was lying down in the grass. The Vortian appeared to have fallen asleep. He couldn't leave his comrade just lying there like that...

"I'll catch up with you!" Purple called. He climbed to his feet and brushed some of the dirt off of his uniform. He adjusted his mask, making sure it was tied securely before regarding the little girl. "I found talking with you... kind of interesting. You should follow Divis. I'll join up with you guys later."

"Hey um... about your friend..." the little girl stood up and clutched the doll to her chest. "Why is he like that?"

"He survived something not many people survive," Purple answered. "The Empire."

The little girl gasped. Her bright eyes widened slightly. "Really?"

"Yes, he doesn't like to talk about it though," Purple said with a sigh. "I can't really say I blame him. The Tallests are horrible to their captives."

"Wow... he really survived the Empire...?"

"Do I look like I'd lie to you specifically?" Purple questioned. "Now get going. Divis is leaving."

The little girl stared at Purple a moment longer before taking off down the hill to join the others. She glanced back at the Tallest a couple times.

When they were gone, Purple took his time strolling through the field. He stopped when he came to Lard Nar who was resting peacefully. His shadow fell over the Vortian.

"Hey... wake up. You're going to have to start interacting with these people sometime or they're going to think you're weird."

Lard Nar stirred a bit. Wearily, he opened his eyes and looked up at the Tallest. He paled and curled close to himself for protection. "Sorry..." he mumbled. "I didn't mean..."

"I thought so..." Purple said as he sat down next to the shaking Vortian. "You're scared of me."

"No, no I'm not," Lard Nar immediately protested. He straightened a bit and propped himself up. "You just surprised me... Really."

"Is it because I look like him, or is it because I'm one of the Tallest?" Purple pressed, disregarding his comrade's denial.

"It's... I mean.. I don't think..." Lard Nar bowed his head. "It's a little of both I guess... I don't know why... You rescued me, so... why would I be scared of you?"

"You're safe now Lard Nar. You have to believe that."

"I'm trying... I really am trying..."

They sat in silence. For a little while, neither of them could think of anything to say.

Then Purple broke the silence. "I'll return to the Empire in three days."

Lard Nar nodded mutely as he tried to sort out his feelings. On one hand he was relieved, but then, a small shiver of fear ran down his spine. He also felt a pang of guilt and a bit of sadness.

"You need freedom Lard Nar... and I guess that's something you will never have if I hang around."

"I won't forget everything you've done for me... but I can't forgive everything you've done... I'm sorry."

"I understand." Emotions were pointless... Purple could feel. All Irkens could feel, but they simply chose to shut off their feelings. He hadn't allowed himself to feel anything when he turned in his 'brother' to be tried by the Control Brains. Even though he wanted freedom more than anything else, he stifled this desire under his obligation to the Empire.

"If we ever meet again, we will be on opposite sides."

"Will you kill me...? If you get the chance...?"

Purple chuckled dryly. "That's funny... I was going to ask you the very same thing." He stood up, and Lard Nar rose to his feet. "I told Divis we'd join him at the stream. Will you come?"

"Um... sure. Ok."

Both of them had a lot to think about, so neither of them spoke.

When they arrived at the stream, the children paused from their games to greet them. Some of the boys had started a splashing war while some of the other children were playing a game of 'call over.' There were two lines of kids, one on each side of the river for the game. The goal was to capture as many 'enemies' from the other side as the line could. The line could move to surround the child who'd been called over, or the child at the end of the row could grab onto the runner's hand, forcing them to join the line.

Both sides took turns calling each other. Divis was called the most because everyone wanted him on their side.

"Ok guys... call someone else for a bit..." Divis panted. He'd noticed the two new members watching, and he was starting to feel a bit rude that he hadn't even taken the time to say hi.

"I'm so sorry! Once they get you involved, it's really hard to leave!" Divis exclaimed as he came to greet Lard Nar and Purple. He rubbed the back of his head and smiled. "So... do you want to play?"

Purple blinked. Lard Nar stared.

"Err... with children?" Purple asked the obvious question.

"Well, yeah," Divis replied. "You can't tell me you've never played with children before."

"Well..." Purple reflected on his last memory of when he interacted with an Irken smeet. It was during Zim's trial... and he ended up locking the small Irken in the dungeons. He brought a finger to his chin. Oh great... he couldn't remember if he ever released the smeet or not. It could very well still be in the dungeons of Judgementia for all he knew.

"Let's just say I'm horrible with children."

"Oh come on, Delinca told me you two got along just fine," Divis remarked, not sounding at all convinced.

"She was a rare exception."

"Well... ok... but that means your friend participates by default!" Divis remarked as he grabbed Lard Nar by the arm and dragged him into the game.

Purple laughed. The children cheered, and despite Lard Nar's initial apprehension, he quickly picked up the rules of the game.

"He's going to fit in here just fine," Purple told himself.

More Notes: Call Over is the alien form of Red Rover. There is a slight bit more movement involved.


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Notes/ disclaimer: **I own none of Invader Zim.

Here'sanotherlongoverduechapter!

Yes. I'm finally back after settling into another routine. I guess I'll try and make myself edit and post a few more chapters somewhat soonish maybe. I have so little motivation to edit, yet there is no way I would post without at least doing a read-through or two. Darn speeling arrors…

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><p><strong>Deeper Meanings<strong>

Everyone was supposed to gather in the morning, but by sun down, most of the members had already returned to the camp. They slept outside in sleeping bags, forming a circle around their leader's tent. Apparently the captain never slept inside the tent, preferring instead to sleep in his own sleeping bag at the edge of the camp and away from everyone else.

"Here you go," Divis said, handing a sleeping bag to Lard Nar. "My mom likes sewing, so when I asked her to make some she was really happy."

"Oh... thanks," Lard Nar replied, accepting the gift.

"Where is your friend anyway? He disappeared after we left the stream... is everything ok with you two?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know... it just felt like something was a bit off... like you guys might have gotten into a fight or something."

Lard Nar bit his lip. He and Purple weren't really fighting... but he wasn't too sure what the Tallest was thinking right now. He kept checking to make sure the space-ship was still parked where they left it. Purple could easily take it and go anytime.

"Oh well, good friends fight sometimes," Divis remarked, shrugging it off.

The sun was beginning to set in the sky which had turned a bright red colour. All of the children had returned home for the night, and the group of Heroians that followed the captain were starting to gather wood from the forest. A few had taken up fishing poles and began walking upstream while others had grabbed some baskets and left to gather what they could.

"We usually make three or four fires to keep warm during the night, although it never really gets that cold on our planet. The coldest it ever gets is during the rainy season in Malmin, a time when the planet's rotation around the sun stretches away, so the sun isn't hot enough to burn away the clouds."

"The planet looks pretty alive for only getting a bit of water," Lard Nar commented.

"That's because of the fresh water reservoirs we built," Divis explained. "Before we took the initiative to help our planet, the trees and the grass were only green one time a year, but now they're always green, or blue, and we always have flowers."

"Does this planet have cities?"

"Yes, lots. We're just in an unpopulated place right now, because we don't want to cause a scene. We build all of our own ships you know."

It was strange for an advanced planet to be so dedicated towards preserving the natural life of the planet... Vort had cared enough to protect a few parks, and Irk hadn't cared to do anything at all.

Then again, Irk was mostly hard rock and dry dirt. There wasn't much life on that planet anyway. He wondered if this had been caused by the Irkens or if the planet had always been a desert. Would Purple know?

"Let's join Naku and Nuka's group," Divis suggested as he started walking towards camp.

"We can help gather firewood."

"Alright," Lard Nar agreed as he followed behind.

"You should walk beside me," Divis said. "It makes it easier for us to talk."

The captain emerged from his tent, and those who were still in the camp formed a half circle around him. They were excited about their next mission, and they wanted to hear everything the captain had planned.

"Now now, you know I won't tell you until morning," the captain replied, holding up his hands in mock defence. "Try to relax and get some sleep tonight. We'll all need to be well rested for tomorrow."

Purple spent much of the evening lost in thought. He wished Red hadn't been such a jerk... but he was only beginning to see things differently now that he was away from his own people.

Until he met Lard Nar, he had always thought the brutality he witnessed as an invader on other planets was meant to be crushed by the larger more brutal force of the Empire. He thought everything that had been downloaded into his Pak and everything he'd learned through training had been the truth… and why wouldn't he? No Irken would question the system they lived in. They wouldn't dare.

It was also a bit disturbing to find out that the armour all Tallest wore for 'protection' hindered his abilities. With it on, he couldn't move very easily, so he wore a hover belt. He'd almost forgotten he could do things like run and climb. His followers were always willing to fetch him whatever he wanted. After he became the Tallest, he became trapped both physically and mentally. He had to conquer, to destroy, to do anything the Empire or the Control Brains, wanted him to do, and for a while he'd even enjoyed it.

His reflexes were still pretty good from his training as a soldier. Apparently Tallest were quite capable of defending themselves, they were just told they couldn't, and they were expected to behave accordingly.

"Am I really going to trap myself back in that world...?" he asked himself, staring up at the stars in the black sky above. Irk was out there somewhere... and so was the Massive. It was strange that he didn't realize he felt anything towards his home planet until he was on someone else's.

When he and Red destroyed the Resisty, he really believed he was doing the right thing. He felt no remorse when he ordered the slaughter of those aliens; they were inferior. The Empire had no need for them... but Lard Nar was different. Vortians were useful. Purple had argued against using the canon sweep on Vort. He'd never fought so hard to prevent a slaughter before... and Red... Red thought he was crazy.

"_You're acting just like HER Purple!" the red Tallest hollered._

"_So what if I am?" Purple questioned, raising an invisible brow._

"_She trusted those... those Vortians, and they killed her!"_

"_Zim killed her Red... we saw his memories..."_

"_But he had never killed a Tallest before he started interacting with those vermin!"_

_Purple sighed. The argument wasn't going anywhere._

He wondered how many planets would be taken before the Empire was satisfied. How many more aliens would become trapped in that kind of existence? He'd never cared about something like this before.

Were he and Lard Nar friends...? He wondered. Probably not. Irkens didn't really have a good grasp on the meaning of that word. Had Red been his friend...? Probably not. He wasn't sure... Red was his DNA brother, but that didn't automatically make them friends did it?

Irkens had even less understanding of family than they did friendships.

He looked down at the ground below him, wondering if he could jump down without hurting himself. Everyone would tell him he couldn't if he was back on Irk. He let go of the branches and leaped down from the tree. He landed easily, and he dusted off his hands. That wasn't difficult.

Purple decided to return to camp. Everyone would be sleeping now, and he could easily slip in unnoticed. He walked towards the smoke rising into the sky and found everyone asleep. There were four fires going, but they didn't have much life left.

His antennae flicked up when he heard someone muttering. He paused and looked around. The captain was lying nearby, away from the rest of the group. Purple approached him slowly. It was obvious the captain was asleep.

The Tallest sat down beside him. This was probably the reason the captain separated himself from everyone at night. The Heroian leader was having a nightmare. It reminded him of all the nightmares Lard Nar had...

Purple watched as the captain's small body tried to fight off the terrors in his mind. The Tallest caught a few broken words... it sounded like "please no" and "stop." He placed his hand on the Heroian's shoulder, feeling the small creature's muscles tense. The captain's eyes snapped open, and he breathed heavily as he tried to recover from the vivid images he'd seen.

"You've been tortured," Purple stated as a matter of fact.

"Oh... Kaenen... you startled me..." the captain remarked, quickly feeling for his mask to make sure it was still on. "Do you need me for something?"

"Was it the Empire?"

The captain sighed and dragged a hand down his face. "Yes... it was the Empire..." he admitted.

"I'm surprised they let you go."

"Me too... I guess the Tallests got bored with me or something. In any case, I was one of the lucky ones."

The masked Heroian smiled. "As long as you're still alive, you have the chance to do all sorts of things. Your friend will realize this too."

"Do you plan to kill the Tallest?" Purple questioned, curious.

The captain chuckled as he moved to sit. "If it would work, possibly... we are a people who promote peace. We only fight when necessary, and even then, we don't like to take lives. But the Tallests aren't really the problem. They're just the pawns... no... the real problem is at the root of the Empire itself, or so I've been told... but the Empire has dozens of control brains. Even if we destroyed one, the Irkens would simply rebuild it."

"That's true," Purple agreed. Not even Zim's rampage on the surface of Irk did much to faze the Empire.

"But one day, we will find a way to bring down the Empire. I really do believe that, and the more help we have the better."

"What if you end up a slave instead?"

"Er..." the captain's expression fell. "That would be kind of a downer... but I guess that's always a possibility. I don't really know... I'd be alive at least. I could always try escaping."

"Well, I'll let you get back to sleep," Purple said, lying down in the grass.

"Aren't you going to join the others?"

"Nah, I'll stay here."

"I might wake you..."

"I don't care."

"Ok... well... good night."

The captain lay back down and snuggled into his sleeping bag.

Purple stayed awake for a while, wondering about what he'd do when he returned to the Empire. Could he keep going like nothing happened...? Wait... he frowned. Heroia had been marked for something... but he couldn't remember what it was.

He doubted it was an invasion... Red was the one who suggested investigating what happened to Irk's stolen supplies, but he didn't recall hearing anything about an invasion.

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><p><strong>Note to Self:<strong> There is no 'Prisoner 16' in your documents. You deleted it because it was the exact same as Prisoner 17 except you didn't EDIT that one.

(I had a chapter splitting error).


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's notes: **I apologize for the long absence. My keyboard was broken, and I seem to have an aversion to editing. I might even be allergic. Haa. Just kidding.

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><p><strong>Taken By the Empire<strong>

Purple woke in the early morning, just as the sun was beginning to rise into the sky. He opened his eyes and propped himself up so he could take a quick look around. Everyone was still sleeping... he needed to check something before they woke.

He stood up and walked towards the trees. As soon as the camp was out of sight, he took off his mask and pulled out the communicator he kept in his pak. He typed in Adviser Tad's number and put on his best fake smile.

The Irken adviser answered immediately. "My Tallest! We were starting to worry. No one has heard anything from you since you left, and you didn't take any of the guards!"

"Relaaax Taddy, I'm just on vacation. I'm relaxing and having a good time. I was curious though, I heard we recently conquered another planet. What was it called?"

"Uh... Timbilt sir. Invader Deb conquered it yesterday. They couldn't use the cannon sweep without your authorization though my Tallest... all of the prisoners are being held in make-shift prisons. As soon as we cut their numbers down, we'll put them to work, but first we need you to ok the use of the Cannon."

"I don't think I'll use the cannon sweep on that planet."

"Um... but my Tallest... it's really important that we..."

"Yeah I know," Purple interrupted. "I want all of the prisoners to remain detained until I return... how's Red doing anyway?"

"He's got a prison sentence sir... twenty seven years... that's why we were hoping you would come back soon."

"I'll be back in two more days. Don't kill or torture anyone until I get return. Bye." Purple ended the transmission, and the communication device withdrew into his pak. He tied the mask back on, making sure it was straight before returning to camp.

Some of the members were beginning to stir from their sleep. The quiet hours of the early morning were peaceful. A few aliens got up, but they didn't speak as the headed to the stream for a drink.

The attitude of the early risers changed when the captain sat up. That was all it took. As soon as the captain was awake, his followers began chatting and prodding their neighbours. Soon the whole camp was buzzing with movement and noise.

Purple watched from a distance. He would wait until the meeting began before rejoining the group. Lard Nar was among them. The Vortian appeared to be getting along with Divis and the twins just fine.

This was not something a Tallest should be doing. Purple bit his bottom lip. His loyalty should be only to the Empire and nothing else. There wasn't room for anything else. Was he really going to help this band of rebels?

Miyuki had been different. His conscious reminded him. She did things her way.

She had been the most brilliant, hard working, disciplined, and the most easy to get along with Tallest the Empire ever had. Unfortunately by Irken standards, this also made her the most untrustworthy and by far the strangest Tallest to ever rule the Empire.

The reason why Red probably hated Vortians so much was because of Miyuki, who also happened to be their DNA mother. Once she started befriending the Vortians, things changed. She became more allusive towards the Empire. More of her projects became top secret, and she began making frequent trips to Vort. Then she died. Red believed it was the Vortian's fault she was dead.

Purple chuckled. He couldn't help wonder how strong genetic factors were in determining behavioural patterns. Maybe he would end up like Tallest Miyuki after all.

"Ok everyone, gather around," the captain spoke from the front of his tent. His followers instantly stopped chatting, and they wandered in from all over camp.

"Today we will fly to the planet Timbilt. It will be dangerous because the Armada will still be in the area, however, for some reason the canon sweep was not deployed, so there are many survivors. If we do not act, many will die. So... who will stand with me and fight for justice?"

"For justice!" everyone exclaimed in union, raising their fists in the air. Only Lard Nar and Purple didn't respond.

"Now.. as per tradition," the captain continued, looking over his followers. "The new recruits will not be joining us. The rest of you may board the ships while I have a word with our new members."

Everyone began filing towards the ships. They broke into three groups and boarded their respective vessels while the captain called Lard Nar and Purple together. Both of them had been standing apart.

"This isn't meant to be a punishment or anything," the captain explained. "I just want to make sure you're both serious about your decision to join us and that you both understand the dangers involved."

Lard Nar nodded. Purple stood still with his arms folded across his chest.

"We'll be back no later then tomorrow night."

The captain waved as he went to join the members on board the first ship. He was smiling. Everyone was very optimistic about this rescue mission. Although, after speaking with the captain, Purple had decided that the Heroian was generally optimistic.

"So... are we speaking yet?" Purple asked.

"I didn't know we stopped speaking..." Lard Nar said.

The ships hummed as they lifted into the air. A wave of energy caused a current around them. Then they shot off into the sky.

The Tallest and the former captain of the Resisty watched until the ships had vanished. After they were gone, Purple turned and began wandering towards the treeline.

"I don't want to be enemies with you again..." Lard Nar admitted as he followed a good distance behind Purple.

"The feeling is mutual," Purple assured him. "I'm the Tallest though. It's not like I can just stop being tall."

"I know..." Lard Nar sighed. "Besides... they would only end up replacing you..."

"That's right."

Purple stopped underneath a tree and looked up into it's branches. It would be easy enough to climb. He grabbed the lowest branch and hoisted himself up.

"What are you doing?" Lard Nar asked, watching.

"Isn't it obvious?" Purple questioned squinting an eye at the Vortian. "I'm climbing a tree."

"Why?"

"Because I can."

He settled down in the mid-high branches and looked down at Lard Nar. "Do Vortians climb?"

"No... not really. We're pretty terrible at it."

"Oh. That's too bad. When I'm out of that armour, it feels like I can do pretty much anything. Actually... I'm going to try something." He held on to one of the higher branches and stood up. Once he felt balanced, he let go. "Either this works out or I'm going back to Irk with one heck of a headache."

"What are you doing?" Lard Nar questioned from where he was at the base of the tree.

"This is something I used to be able to do when I was an Elite," Purple replied as he jumped. He did a summer-salt in the air and landed on his feet, but one of his knees buckled, forcing him into a kneeling position. "Huh..."

Lard Nar approached him with widened eyes. He looked a bit stunned.

"Well... the landing could have gone a bit better, but I can still do it. I wonder if I can still fight the same way I used to."

"Wow..."

"For an Elite soldier this is no big deal."

"But, none of the Tallests... I mean, could they do that?"

"Maybe... but they probably didn't believe they could. Besides, when would they have an opportunity to try?"

Purple stood up straight and stretched his arms behind his back. Then he flopped face-down in the grass. The warm air felt nice.

"We're going to have some company," he yawned, resting with his cheek on his arms.

Lard Nar glanced behind him and looked around before returning his attention to the Tallest.

"What do you mean?"

"Just listen.." Purple spoke.

The faint sound of cheerful laughter and talking could be heard through the trees. It was getting closer until they could hear the rustle of grass and brush from a few people approaching.

Well, they weren't people exactly... they were children. To be more specific, they were the children from yesterday, the ones Divis liked to lead in games of rolling down hills and spraying water. Purple's antennae lowered. What did they want?

"Uncle Kaenen?" the current leader of the group; the eldest boy, said.

"What...?" Purple responded, not sounding the least bit friendly.

"You could try to be nicer..." Lard Nar told him flatly.

"Ugh... yes I know," Purple responded, rolling over onto his back. It was a bit uncomfortable because of his Pak, yet he ignored this. He looked up at the children who had gathered around him like some kind of hungry carnivorous life-forms... well not really, but the close proximity was making the Tallest feel a bit irritable. "What do you want?"

"You said we were old enough to learn how to fight," Delinca pressed.

"Oh... I see where this is going," Purple remarked pushing himself up to sit. "Isn't this something you should be asking your captain?"

"He already said no..." one of the younger children admitted.

"So you all thought you'd come ask me while he's gone," Purple concluded. He stood up and dusted off his hands. "Fine. Come at me like you want to kill me."

"Kaenen..." Lard Nar spoke, sounding worried.

"They want to learn, and right now I'm willing to teach," Purple remarked, spreading his legs a bit to brace himself against a charge. "I won't tell you again soldiers. Come at me now, or I won't teach you a thing!"

The eldest boy attempted to charge. He was much too slow however, and Purple could tell he wasn't being completely serious. The Tallest easily dodged the half-hearted assault and snagged the child by the arm. With one swing, the boy flew into the air and landed roughly on the earth.

"What are you doing!?" Lard Nar snapped as he quickly went to the boy's side to check for injuries. "You could have broken something..."

"I am perfectly ready to break your bones and knock you unconscious," Purple warned the rest of the children who stared at him with wide frightened eyes. "Military training isn't a game. You either take it seriously, or you risk the consequences of pain and dying." He stood up straighter and locked eyes with Delinca. "If you aren't ready to die, you aren't ready to join the captain. Understand?"

All of the children nodded. None of them could speak.

"Good. Now all of you go home."

The children began to walk back the way they had come. Some of them glanced over their shoulders, while others didn't look back at all.

"You didn't have to be so hard on them," Lard Nar insisted. The boy's arm was bent at an odd angle. It was broken.

The child had tears in his eyes, but he stayed quiet as the Vortian looked him over.

"You were very brave," Purple told the boy.

"Th-Thanks sir..." the boy mumbled, clutching his wounded arm close to his body.

"You're ready to move on to the next stage of training."

"I... am...?"

"Yes," Purple bent down and picked up a few twigs. He came close to the boy and dropped them in his lap. "Learning how to tend to your own wounds is really important."

The Tallest yawned. "You better wait for your arm to heal before you ask to be trained again." He started to leave.

"You aren't just going to leave him here like this..." Lard Nar growled as he helped the boy to stand. The child ground his teeth and winced

Purple shrugged his shoulders. "I don't see a problem with this method. I survived it didn't I?"

"Um... sir...?" the boy questioned. Tears were streaming down his face.

"Yes?"

"Thanks... for not treating me like a kid."

Purple paused. That had been an unexpected reaction. Maybe the boy was more ready to become a soldier than he had first given him credit for. "Go and get your arm fixed up," Purple said without turning around.

"Next time I'll come at you like it's for real," the boy said.

"I'm sure you will."

Lard Nar was amazed by the child's determined attitude and lack of fear. "Are you sure you're alright?" he questioned.

"Oh yeah... I kind of think that guy went easy on me actually..." the boy started walking back towards his village. Lard Nar watched him go before catching up with the Tallest.

"What was that?" he demanded.

"I was testing him. He wasn't serious."

"You broke his arm!"

Purple glared down at the Vortian. "And you think my soldiers would have left him uninjured? I'm doing this boy a favour. The others too. If they are still interested, I'll be glad to train them. At least then they'll be able to put up a fight before they die."

Lard Nar bit his lip. He couldn't think of a proper response.

"Irk it's self is a military training facility. We have special training planets where we send our soldiers, like Devastis and Hobo 13. What does this planet have in comparison?" Purple questioned, but he wasn't expecting an answer. "It has nothing," he replied. "You and your crew were the same. You had no training, and you all paid the price for it."

"You're right..." Lard Nar muttered, watching the ground. "We were unprepared..."

"These people are also unprepared."

"So... they will suffer the same fate...?"

"Yes... no..." Purple breathed a sigh and brought a hand down his face. "I don't know."

"You're telling me nothing inside you has changed at all?" Lard Nar asked. "You're going to continue killing innocent people, conquering planets, and enslaving the inhabitants..?"

"I said I don't know," Purple's antennae fell. "I don't know... It's not like I want to, but I can't stand against the Irken Machine."

"Yes you can!"

"You don't understand!" Purple snapped, silencing the Vortian instantly. "If I start bending the rules, the Control Brains will begin to notice this change. I will be put on trial. I might even be deactivated. Then, once that's all over and done with, another Tallest, one who won't question things, will be brought in to take my place. I would have done nothing!"

"I'm sorry..." Lard Nar mumbled.

"It's not your fault. Non-Irkens generally don't understand. The Tallests aren't the true leaders. The Control Brains are."

"Then why does Irk have Tallests in the first place?"

"The Control Brain's need to be attached to a power source... they can't move around freely. Tallests can."

"That's it...?"

"Not all Irkens are comfortable with the idea have having a computer govern their lives. They prefer to think of the Control Brains as something we use, rather than something that can literally control us."

"I see... I kind of thought the Tallests kind of had some control over them..."

"Yeah, well, we don't."

They spent most of the day at the abandoned camp and in the open field. Lard Nar was content to relax in the sunlight. He caught a nap while Purple practice some of his old fighting techniques.

There was a faint humming sound coming from above. Purple and Lard Nar looked up to see two of the three Heroian ships returning. One of them had some exterior damage. It kept tilting from side to side. The other one looked completely fine... but the third one just wasn't there. Even when the two ships landed, Lard Nar continued to watch the sky, hoping that the last vessel was just late in returning.

"Come on," Purple told him, his voice sounding a bit strained. "We need to find out what's going on."

Both of them ran back to camp. When they arrived, almost everyone had disembarked. A few members were lying on the ground, some were crying, others were standing around with blank looks on their faces.

"What happened?" Purple demanded as he and Lard Nar's run turned into a slow jog. They stopped in front of one of the ships where a few of the crew had gathered. Most of them were crying. The Tallest quickly ran through a mental list of everyone who was present.

"It was awful..." Zebber spoke. His hands were trembling, so he kept them pressed against his chest. "One of our ships was shot down. The captain traded himself in to rescue the survivors, but the Empire kept two of us...Hion and Lodi died in the crash. The captain, Lemwor, and Divis were taken..."

Lard Nar turned to Purple. "You have to do something..." he spoke as tears blurred his vision. He hadn't known the captain or Divis for very long, but he knew what happened once the Empire had you. All of their dreams... everything they were fighting for... it could all vanish.

"There's nothing anyone can do now," Kotto lamented. The white creature with the bell-curved ears buried his face in his hands.

"Please..." Lard Nar begged. "If you don't do something, they'll be tortured and killed..."

Purple's body was frozen. He felt like he couldn't move at all. His eyes fell to the pleading friend... that's right, he considered Lard Nar his friend. When did that happen? In any case, he hated the atmosphere. It was depressing... but what could he do?

First he would need his armour he decided.

He swept passed everyone and entered the captain's tent. His armour was sitting in one of the far corners behind a curtain. He hurriedly changed into it, but he kept his mask on. He didn't need anyone trying to get in the way right now.

Once he was dressed in his armour, he stepped outside and took a look around. This would be the last time he would ever be able to come to this planet. His heart sank, but he quickly shrugged off these sentimental feelings as he headed for his ship.

"Where are you going?" Yittivik asked. The large alien with three eyes stared at the Tallest who seemed to be in a hurry to go somewhere.

"I've had fun hanging around here, but it's time for me to get serious," Purple remarked, pushing past the alien.

"Wait! Stop!" Mibi yelled.

"You'll get yourself killed!" Zebber shouted.

All of the Captain's crew came forward to try and stop the Tallest, but Purple was already standing on the platform at the entrance of his ship. "Calm down everyone," Purple told them raising a hand to silence their worried banter.

"Before I leave I have a confession I need to make," Purple began. "The truth is I'm not a Miekarian from the planet Miekar, and my planet didn't explode or whatever."

Lard Nar stared. The Tallest wasn't really going to reveal his identity to these people... was he?

"I am in fact, Tallest of Irk!" As Purple said this, he took of his mask and tossed it on the ground. "Now I'm going to go torture your boss and kill your comrades, unless you come to stop me of course. Bye."

The platform lifted, and the ship was locked. Everyone was too stunned to say anything or move. Then the Tallest started the ship and flew it into the sky, leaving behind planet Heroia and Lard Nar.

* * *

><p><strong>Notes: <strong>I think if Purple had a list of possible career paths, babysitting wouldn't be in the top 100... and there he goes provoking the Heroians into action, and yes, he did deliberately leave Lard Nar behind. Was that a good idea? You shall see next chapter.


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Notes:** I had a break-up when I was writing this chapter. (LOL this was like over three years ago. I really need to learn to post stuff faster). If I had to guess why I wrote that, I would guess I wanted to see if emotions played a role in my writing style or something? Yeah, probably. Also these pre-written notes are kind of like a time-capsule for my mind.

Anyway, sorry for the long wait. Life happened again.

* * *

><p><strong>Purple's Return<strong>

Purple hadn't been in space very long when his communicator started going off. He checked the number; it was coming from Adviser Tad.

"What the heck does he want now?" Purple asked out loud. His antennae fell back in irritation as he pushed the receive button.

"My Tallest!" Zim's face appeared on the screen. "I've been trying to contact you for days! Then when I couldn't get through to the Massive, I came to Irk to ask the advisers where you might have gone. I had to do such TERRIBLE things to adviser Tad to make him surrender your number!"

"Zim..." Purple let out a sigh. "What are you doing on Irk? Shouldn't you be planning Earth's destruction?"

The short 'invader' laughed. "My Tallest, if I was actually serious about that planet it would have been destroyed a long time ago!"

Purple gave him a blank look. Uh huh. Right. "Well I'm kind of busy Zim."

"I thought it might be time," Zim continued to speak. "Is it time yet?"

"Time for what Zim?"

"For me to destroy the Control Brains," Zim responded with a sinister grin.

"What..?" Purple blinked.

"I very nearly destroyed them before my Tallest, when you and Tallest Red had me on trial. That was the key. Tallest Miyuki had me installed with a special program that can disrupt the data from the Control Brains, rendering them useless. It's what makes me amazing. Tallest Miyuki had me created for that purpose."

"Wait... what do you mean by that? Tallest Miyuki made you?"

"Yes, yes she did. Zim was made in the Vort labs prior to being placed in the smeet factory, back when I was just a piece of metal and some wiring. I only have two goals. One is to rescue the Tallest from destruction. The second is to destroy the Control Brains.

I didn't lie when I said Tallest Spork was still alive sir! Zim made sure both he and Tallest Miyuki made it out ok. The Control Brains had her marked for deactivation. The advisers knew this, and so did I. In order to rescue her, I knew I had to get myself transferred to the weapons research facility on Vort."

"So... you're saying that everything you did was a part of Tallest Miyuki's plan...?" Purple questioned him sceptically.

"And then the Empire marked Tallest Spork for deactivation!" Zim continued undeterred. "Can you believe it? He respected Tallest Miyuki and everything she stood for, that's why he wouldn't have lasted long... I even put myself through training just so I could keep watch on him. Tallest Miyuki made me promise to keep this a secret until it was time."

"If this is true, shouldn't Red and I have been marked for deactivation?" Purple questioned. It only made sense since they both had a part of Miyuki's DNA.

"No my Tallest! You two have acted just like the Empire wanted you to. As long as you continue to be a pawn for the Control Brains, you won't be marked for deactivation."

"I have to confess something Zim..." Purple began, sounding a bit hesitant. "I've started acting against the Empire..."

"Then Zim will destroy it!" Zim announced triumphantly, raising his fist in the air.

"No Zim... you can't."

"Yes Zim can! All you have to do is order another trial and I can..."

"Zim!" Purple snapped, and the small Irken quieted down. "Right now I have too much to deal with. Red went nuts and nearly killed me, I've been hanging out with rebels for the past few days, and I'm about to return to the Empire in order to start plotting the release of the rebel group's leader..." He rubbed his forehead. "I really don't think I need the added stress of you trying to do something impossible on top of everything else right now..."

Didn't he understand that the Control Brains wouldn't fall for the same thing twice?

Zim's eyes narrowed as he studied his Tallest for a moment. Finally the small Irken gave a nod. "Then I will return to Earth until it is time."

Finally... sometimes the defect was just too stubborn. "Yeah. You do that Zim."

"Be careful my Tallest. Your mother would kill me if anything happened to you."

"Is she really still alive...?"

"Oh yes. She's perusing her passion."

Purple leaned in a bit closer. Despite all rational telling him Zim was insane, she still hoped to hear some news that Miyuki was still alive. "Yes?"

"Her passion of being a space pirate!" Zim announced.

Purple nearly slammed his head against the controls. Now he knew Zim had to be lying. Tallest Miyuki would never become a space pirate EVER...

"Good luck my Tallest," Zim remarked, and he saluted before cutting the transmission.

The Tallest straightened up and shook his head. That was just Zim being Zim. There was no way anything he said could be true.

Now that he was no longer distracted by a certain annoying Irken, Purple felt confident in what needed to be done. He would rescue the captain and Divis. The other guy was stupid and didn't matter... but he supposed he could try to get him freed as well.

"Oh shloot..." Purple groaned as he brought a hand to his forehead. Zim knew his personal contact number…

Lard Nar stared up at the sky long after the ship had disappeared. He was stunned.

"Did you know?" One of the captain's boys demanded, drawing closer. They were all coming too close, but Lard Nar couldn't bring himself to react any differently. He couldn't look away from the sky... that is until he felt the eyes of everyone in the camp on him.

He closed his mouth after a little while and pulled his gaze away.

"Leave him alone," one of the members said, coming in between Lard Nar and his accuser. "Can't you see he's upset?"

All of the faces melded together. Lard Nar held his head. He felt dizzy.

"Everyone was tricked," the same person spoke. "Let's just try to calm down... we still have to rescue our captain."

"And Divis..." Lard Nar muttered. "We have to get him back..."

Everyone looked at each other solemnly until finally someone spoke out. "Sorry, but the captain comes first."

As night fell, the members of the crew began getting ready for bed. They couldn't do anything today. Everyone was tired and high-strung from the battle.

Lard Nar lay down next to the twins and curled himself inside his sleeping bag. He wished Purple would have told him what he was planning, but the Tallest left without saying anything at all. For some reason, he doubted Purple would actually have either Divis or the captain tortured. The other guy was most likely a lost cause though... Purple never did like him.

"Don't worry," Naku, or Nuka, spoke. "We'll get our captain back..."

"Can I come with you?" Lard Nar asked quietly, knowing full well that none of these people had any reason to trust him.

There was a long pause.

"I don't think so Toffer..." it was the answer he'd been expecting. "You're too inexperienced... and your friend turned out to be the Tallest. No one really trusts you."

"You too...?" Lard Nar asked. "You don't trust me either?"

"Good night Toffer," the twin said, rolling over. He didn't need to answer the question. Lard Nar knew the distrust was there. At least they were giving him the benefit of the doubt, but how long would their patience with him last?

If this had been any other planet he would have been imprisoned or maybe even killed for "aiding" the Tallest.

Purple felt like he'd been stopped by every Irken patrol-man between Heroia and the Massive. He groaned when the Spittle Runner nearby signalled him to stop. This time he didn't. He blew past the Spittle Runner which didn't have the same amount of thrust as his vessel did. In a few seconds, he had lost sight of the Irken ship.

He was nearly at the Massive anyway. There was no point in playing by the rules now...

He made contact with the technicians and had them lower the landing ramp and open the hatch to the docking bay. When they realized it was their Tallest speaking to them, they hurriedly did as they were told. Purple landed his ship and nearly crushed some of the drones standing around waiting to refuel the ships in the Armada.

When he stepped out, his followers gathered around to welcome him back.

"Greetings my Tallest!"

"Did you have a good trip my Tallest?"

"Would you like me to fetch you a new hover belt my Tallest?"

Purple held up his hand to silence them. "I need to know if there were any prisoners captured during my absence."

"Yes sir," one of the drones replied, saluting his Tallest in respect. "Three rebels were caught not long ago. Two are being held in the dungeons while their leader is being kept in the torture chamber."

"Has there been any torture?" Purple asked, narrowing his eyes at the drone.

"No sir... We were told to wait for you to return before any torture was carried out my Tallest..."

"I don't mean to interrupt, but former Tallest Red requested to speak with you my Tallest," one of the guards said. There was another guard standing next to him.

Red... he was still down in the holding unit... The Massive only had a few holding cells, but prisoners from outside the Empire wouldn't be placed in the same cell as a Tallest. It wouldn't be allowed.

He wasn't worried about Red's safety at all. His fellow Tallest had already proven that he could handle himself just fine... but Purple couldn't fight the urge he felt to at least go check on Divis.

"Alright," Purple sighed. "I'll just put on some different armour before I go visit him."

Both guards followed him to his room. He changed quickly into some lavender coloured armour, so Red wouldn't suspect anything. When he was finished, he stepped out into the hall.

The guard and his associate saluted before turning around and walking through the hallway. Purple followed them slowly. He was trying to form a plan to not only rescue the captain, but Divis as well. If he was caught, not only would they die, he would be removed as Tallest and eventually killed as well.. and who knows what kind of Tallest would replace him.

His thoughts spun in circles. He couldn't really decide how he should do things, but he knew he had to do something.

"We're here sir," the guard spoke while his associate placed himself next to the doors in order to guard their entrance. Purple blinked. He couldn't remember how he got here... oh well.

The guard entered first while he trailed a bit behind, looking at a few empty cells. Then he spotted Divis and what's his name sitting crouched on the ground. They were beaten and bloody in the centre of the energy field; another fine example of Irken brutality.

Then he saw Red. His DNA brother was standing solemnly with his hands behind his back and his head bowed in what appeared to be quiet contemplation.

"Red?"

A ruby eye cracked open when Purple spoke.

"Purple..." Red's voice was quieter than it usually was.

"You wanted to talk to me?"

"Not really..." Red spoke as he stared intently at Purple.

"Then what do you want?"

Red sighed. "I wanted to see you... Is that a problem?"

Purple managed a smile. "No... I understand. We haven't been apart for this long before."

For a moment it looked like Red was actually remorseful. "I made a very stupid mistake…" the crimson-eyed Tallest admitted.

"Yes you did... several of them."

"Do you have to rub it in?"

"Always."

Both of them became silent. There were a lot of things Purple wished he could tell Red, but he couldn't trust him. Not to mention there were two prisoners listening in on the conversation, and the guard was watching them from a very short distance away. Purple couldn't be completely honest under these circumstances.

Purple cleared his throat. "So um.. Zim called me from Irk."

Red's antennae fell back and he scowled. "What was he doing on Irk?"

"I'm not entirely sure... but I think Adviser Tad might need some therapy."

"Did Zim leave?"

"Yeah, he's gone back to invading Earth."

Red smirked. "He's never going to be able to conquer that planet."

"No kidding," Purple responded, chuckling. "He's hopeless."

They were identical. Should he tell Red what he was about to do…? They were DNA brothers. What was that saying he heard once before? Blood was thicker than something or whatever…

The prisoners couldn't do anything, and the guard probably couldn't hear…

He lowered his gaze and sucked in a breath. "Red I…"

"Purple," Red's voice was forceful and stern. "Do. Not. Tell. Me. Anything."

What was he saying…? Purple's antennae fell back. "What do you…?"

"If you want to live, do not tell me what you're planning," Red warned him.

They were no longer working together. The bitterness of this realization struck Purple as he lifted his gaze, and he studied Red's expression, wondering if his DNA brother had a similar revelation.

"I'm not going to drop the charges," Purple remarked crossing his arms.

"Alright. Come back and chat soon," Red responded waving him away with a knowing smile.

His DNA brother smirked back. Of course Red was plotting on escaping. Who wouldn't? Once he was in Irk's prisons, there would be no escape. He'd have to serve twenty seven years behind iron bars and energy fields.

Maybe Purple would help him escape. Red wasn't the Tallest right now. After he'd served out his sentence, Red's right to lead Irk would come back under review, but for now he was just a prisoner. He'd gotten off lightly because of his status. If anyone else had attempted to kill Purple, they would have been deactivated on the spot.

"Good bye then," Purple spoke, turning to leave.

The two Heroian prisoners stared at him as he passed by. They'd overheard their conversation. They knew one of the Tallests was imprisoned...

"W-We won't say anything..." Divis mumbled dropping his gaze. One of the Tallest was imprisoned, but only the Empire knew about it. If it started to leak out to the free planets, the morale of the rebels would surely increase.

The guard scowled and came in between the 'vermin' and his Tallest. "How dare you address the Tallest filth!"

"Enough guard," Purple said, and the guard immediately backed off. The Tallest looked down at Divis. The Heroian looked small and weak inside that cell. He was also clearly frightened. Purple could see the young Heroian was trying to hide his trembling hands behind his back.

"You're pretty bold with those masks on aren't you?"

Divis' eyes widened in fear, and he remained staring at the floor, not daring to raise his eyes.

"Guard, have their masks removed and their families found. Do the same to their captain. Send soldiers to that planet and whatever. Use force if you have to."

"M-Me sir?" the guard stammered pointing at himself. He was just a regular guard. He didn't have the authority to order Irken soldiers around.

"Yes you. Does it look like I care enough to do it myself? I have more important things to do."

"Yes sir..." the guard responded, saluting his Tallest. "Right away sir."

"Please don't..." Divis spoke. He stood up and came as close to the energy field as he could. "Our families have nothing to do with this..."

"Stop talking!" the other Heroian, who's name Purple decided to forget, snapped. "You're only making our situation worse!"

Purple laughed. "You really think he could make your situation any worse than it already is? That's funny. Maybe I'll keep you as an entertainment slave."

He continued out into the hallway where the other guard was waiting.

"Go help the other guard," Purple told him.

The Irken looked confused by the command, but he wasn't about to disobey his Tallest. He hurried into the dungeon to see what the other guard needed him for.

"My Tallest!" One of the technicians called as he came running down the hallway. He must have come all the way from the control room. "F-Forgive me sir..." he panted. "But... there has been more trouble... on planet Meekrob... Tenn just called..."

Purple nodded. "Alright. I'll call her back."

"Thank you sir..."

After calling Invader Tenn and hearing her report, listening to Invader Deb's report about the newly conquered planet, having Adviser Tad call him in order to have Zim arrested, which he refused under the pretence that he wanted to see the adviser's face when he did refuse, and listening to the detailed summery of Red's sentencing and the reason the former Tallests's sentence was only twenty seven years rather than termination, Purple felt ready to call it a day. His head hurt. He wanted to sleep.

But he still needed to see the captain.

Now that he thought about it, holding someone in the torture chamber rather than the holding cells was strange. It could be that his followers lied about not torturing the prisoners in his absence.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong> Zim is talking about his 'Pak' which he addressed as himself. He sometimes sees himself as his Pak for whatever reason. Only Zim does this in this story. The other Irkens prefer to see themselves on a somewhat more biological level. It kind of explained the third person thing somewhat I guess. Sure.


End file.
